The Injury Conundrum
by Chocolatemilkandregrets
Summary: A good deal of 104th training squad viewed Eren as weird, as it's not every day some random kid wakes up screaming about how all the titans will fall at his hands. It's also not every day that some random kid can shrug off injuries that would have a grown man out for months on medical leave through sheer force of rage and determination.
1. Where's Your Skin Care Tutorial?

As much as Eren wished that he had been the one to discover the problem, that'd be a lie. In reality Armin had been the one to discover it, and while Eren loved his friend, He definitely wished that sometimes Armin would just keep his damn discoveries to himself.

As such was the case after a particularly rough 3DMG training session. Although standing for hours in the sun with uniforms that definitely aren't made to keep the wearer cool had lowered most trainees cleanliness standards when it came to clothes, no matter how tired one got, they still didn't want to sleep in a sweat soaked shirt.

Or at least that was Eren's thoughts on the matter as he peeled off his shirt and reached for the clean pair that had recently been washed.

'But not folded because Jean was on laundry duty and was an asshole' thought Eren.

"Woah." Said Armin, his fingers suddenly tracing Eren's back.

"What?" Exclaimed Eren, as he swiped his hands along the area that Armin had been touching. "Is there something on my back? One of the weird ass bugs that can spray chemicals out of its butt?"

Ee had encountered one earlier in the week, and it was an all around memorable experience for the entire camp.

Eren, for his part, was just glad that the trainee jacket was at least relatively stain proof.

Armin gave a half-hearted smile, "A bombardier beetle- and no, it's not a bug. It's not anything to be honest."

"Ok then..?" Eren muttered, confused. "Then what's the issue?"

"Well, that's just it. There's nothing there"

"So? It's not like there's supposed to be anything on my back is there?

Armin huffed, "Well, just, are you sure you're wearing your gear tight enough?"

"Armin, buddy, if I wear anything any tighter I'm gonna lose a few parts that are very important to me." Eren grimaced, flopping down on his bunk.

As much as he loved finally, FINALLY getting to work with 3DMG gear, as it meant that he was just one step closer to being able to join the Survey corps, he definitely could do without some of the chafing.

Armin turned back to his own bunk, neatly folding up his spare clothes. "It's just odd y'know," He mumbled, "everyone else has blisters and calluses, but you don't even look like you've done anything."

"Well MAYBE it's because I actually take good showers and take care of my skin." Eren retorted, a bit louder than necessary

"Yeah, yeah Jaeger, we all know that you gotta make sure your skin is absolutely pristine," Sneered Jean, "wouldn't want to make your daily application of make-up difficult."

"Oh, I'm sorry for actually caring about proper hygiene horseface", Hollered back Eren as he got up "but unfortunately I have no desire to smell like a fucking stable."

Eren sat back on his bunk as he leaned closer to Armin. "Sides' I've seen what it looks like when a person's skin gets fucked up. Shit's nasty"

Armin just gave a lopsided smile as he placed his newly folded clothes beneath his bunk. Despite all of their years of friendship, Armin had never really met Grisha outside of passing, but oh boy the stories of what Eren had seen could be down right horrific at times.

He personally thought that Eren should have kept most of them to himself, but in the end it may or may not have been his fault for asking.

"I understand, but I don't think that's how calluses work Eren. Even if it was, I know Mikasa has cleanliness standards just as high as yours, and she's got really bad blisters around here." Replied Armin as he traced a line across his chest just below his collarbone.

"Woah, woah, woah buddy," Teased Connie with a smirk "How do _**you**_ know that Mikasa has blisters across her chest? You getting something we aren't?"

Armin flushed. "That's not-I didn't- I haven't-"

"Get your mind out of the gutter man," said Eren as he tossed his boots at Connie's head, "It's just because she asked us earlier if the chest strap was supposed to chafe so bad. She was wearing them way too tight."

"Heh, sure if you say so." laughed Connie as he scrambled up to the top bunk to avoid any more clothing being thrown at him.

Eren sighed as he got up again to grab his boots. He knew that others had been getting blisters, and the commander had talked about proper treatment for them, but he'd just thought that most of the people were being dramatic

Walls knows what some of these people would do to get out of training

"s' probably not that big a deal." said Eren as he walked back to his bunk. "Maybe I've just got real thick skin, I know my dad had something like that."

"Some of his doctor friends would always comment on how unfair it was that he never got any blisters from holding those scalpels and such y'know," He said as he waved his hands dismissively "I probably got the, uh, what do you call it?"

"A gene"

"Yeah I probably got the gene or some shit"

Armin looked unconvinced

"Look I mean it's not hurting anyone and if you're really that messed up over it, you can check to see if my gears' on properly tomorrow."

"Ok then." Exhaled Armin as he laid his blanket across his bunk.

The two laid across from each other in silence for a bit as the others climbed into their bunks, prepping for lights out.

"You know it's not because I don't believe you right?" Asked Armin

Eren placed his fingers on the bridge of his nose and slowly moved them across his cheeks. "Yes Armin. I know."

"I'm just concerned y'know"

"I can see that."

"I mean in the Survey Corps a strap too loose could lead to a flub in a maneuver."

"I understand Armin."

"And out there there's no room for error out there, if you mess up you could die-"

"Can both of you kindly shut the FUCK UP!" yelled Jean.

"Sorry!" squeaked Armin.

Eren huffed, torn between telling Jean that he could also kindy fuck off and simply staying silent. In the end silence won out as he really didn't want Armin to continue chiding him for his choice to join the Survey Corps.

It'd been like that even before joining as an official trainee.

Despite the fall of Wall Maria easily being the worst fucking day of his life, he'd at least thought that maybe, just fucking maybe, now everyone would see the importance of fighting back.

Everyone would see why they needed to see the outside world.

Why they were so _fucking trapped._

Trapped within these walls made of stone and who knows what else, that yes they keep the titans out, but moreso they keep humanity _**in**_, that they blocked any kind of freedom, that they blocked people from _their goddamn __**birthright**__-_

Eren was jolted out of his thoughts by shifting above him, as Franz very obviously attempted to sneak out.

Probably to see Hannah again.

Eren released an angry sigh between his teeth as he ran his hands over his face.

Everything would be fine.

Everything had to be fine.

He would join the Survey corps and kill them all, and that was all there was to it.

That was all he had to do.

Despite Armin's insistence that Eren **had** to be wearing his straps too loose, when he checked the next day, the straps were just fine.

"See Armin, I told you that I'm not doing anything wrong." Said Eren, batting Armin's hands away from the side clasps on his ribs.

"I know, I know, but it doesn't make any sense!" Exclaimed Armin, "Everyone is getting blisters, except for you for some reason, but I don't understand what you're doing differently, and frankly I'm jealous because having blisters sucks!"

Armin began wringing his hands back and forth as he circled around Eren, searching for something, anything that would show the way to reduce the friction between his skin and the rough leather belt.

Eren smiled sympathetically, still pushing Armin away. "Maybe it's my shirt, maybe it's that weird thing my dad had, but at this point who gives a shit, and stop fidgeting you're gonna attract Mikasa!"

"What's he done this time, Armin?" asked Mikasa as she walked up from behind

"Why do you always gotta assume it's something I've done?!"

"Well, shockingly, this time it's something he hasn't done," answered Armin, electing to ignore Eren for the moment, "He doesn't get any blisters or anything from the gear, but I can't find the way he's wearing it wrong."

"I am **not** wearing it wrong"

Mikasa glanced at him suspiciously.

"None, like literally none?"

"Zip, zero, nada." replied Armin finally relenting after Eren batted his hands away for the nth time.

"Huh." Said Mikasa, looking thoughtful.

She turned to Eren, "I think Annie said she doesn't get any blisters or anything either."

"Thank you!" Exclaimed Eren throwing his hands into the air. He whipped around to face Armin as he gloated, "As you can see it's not just me, so I'm not doing anything wrong."

"Unless both of you are gearing up wrong.." Mumbled Armin.

"What was that? I'm sorry I can't hear you over the sound of being right."

"Both of you shut up." Said Mikasa, "We've got line up in ten in minutes, so both of you better be ready."

Eren glared at her, but turned on his heel to find his place on the barren field.

Armin sighed, "I know he means well, but would it kill him to listen to someone else for five minutes?"

"You know how he is," She said, adjusting her scarf "You'd sooner convince the titans to leave us alone than to get him to change his mind about something."

Armin let out a small laugh.

"I know, but that's not gonna stop me from trying y'know?"

"Hey are you two just gonna stand there, or are you actually gonna get to your damn spots?" Yelled Eren as the other trainees flowed into the field.

"Yeah, yeah we get it." Armin waved back.

And with that the issue had been dropped. Armin and Mikasa still continued to bring it up occasionally whenever Eren complained about chafing, but Eren, for his part, had largely forgotten the issue.

He'd just written it up as a quirk of biology.

Something with no answer, something he ultimately didn't need to be concerned about.

Something that would never matter.

That was, until, about five months later, he sent himself hurtling into an oncoming tree in an attempt to avoid the freshly pulled up titan cut out.


	2. Eren,You Should Probably See a Therapist

Eren hit the ground with an audible crunch, and _oh sweet Sina that fucking hurt, what the hell did he do to his wrist_.

Tears started pooling in his eyes as he pushed himself up with his forearms. He leaned over to look at his wrist becasuse _holy fucking shit, that hurt, that hurt, why did it hurt so __**bad.**_

Exhaling sharply through his teeth, he turned his head to look and-nothing. It really didn't look like anything had happened, aside from maybe some minor swelling- that would be a nasty bruise later- but that was fine.

Just a bruise was fine because it meant that it probably wasn't sprained, and although it'd hurt like a bitch he wouldn't have to miss out on training to get it fixed, or, Walls forbid, have to stay out for a week because you can't operate 3DMG gear with a sprained wrist.

That had happened to Marco when they'd first been working with the gear, and while he'd only been out for a few days, he'd spent the better part of three months trying to catch up- and Eren couldn't afford that.

He gingerly pushed himself up, taking care to avoid putting pressure on his left wrist- thank Walls it was his left and not his right, he really didn't want to be flinching every time he attempted to eat for as long as it took to heal- as he positioned his feet under him and sat back onto his heels.

To test his range of motion he lifted his arm with his right hand and went to flex his wrist, except-

Nothing happened.

Eren kept staring dumbly at his wrist as it stayed where it was, flopped towards the ground, as he kept trying over and over to move it.

In his fustration he moved his hand up from his forearm to lift his wrist and- _fuck_, _**fuck**_, _that was a bad fucking idea._

Shit, he couldn't move it, and now that he was thinking about it, it actually hurt really fucking bad even when he wasn't moving it, and it was this deep ache coming from somewhere within his wrist, feeling like bone-

Hot tears spilled down Erens cheeks as he keened foward, placing his right hand on the ground for balance, because fuck he knew exactly what that meant.

He'd seen it before, in cases with little kids who had fallen out of carts, with laborers who tried to carry too much and dropped the weight, with nobels who'd fallen down their too long, too elegant staircases- yeah they looked cool, but why would they want to walk more than necessary?- and he knew _**exactly**_ what this meant.

_Fuck_. _**Fuck. **_His wrist was broken.

Pretty badly too if the pain and numbness in his fingers was anything to go by, and now that he was looking at it up close, he could definently see that it was angled wrong, and it was so ovbious that something was wrong, and fuck that would take him out of training for Walls knew how long and-

Eren screamed into the elbow of his good arm, as he wiped the tears from his face

This couldn't happen to him, it just couldn't!

He needed to keep training, working, so that he'd be able to graduate and join the Survey corps and kill titans and he couldn't fucking train if his wrist was broken, holy shit they wouldn't let him do anything, they'd send him back to the refugee camps and he'd never even be allowed to attempt joining the millitary again and-

"Woah buddy, you doing ok?" Asked Reiner as he landed with a thump onto the pile of leaves behind Eren. "You took that fall pretty hard man."

Eren cleared his throat as attempted to calm himself.

If nobody found out about this, he could still train. Fuck, he'd have to take the days off and pretend it was only sprained, but if he could set it and keep it in place maybe, just maybe, nothing worse would happen.

He knew how to set it properly, and he'd seen how long it took to heal before.

"Yeah, m' good." Rasped Eren as he wiped his face, "Just landed bad. Think I hurt m'wrist."

Reiner whistled. "Shit man that's really not good."

"Mhm."

"Can you walk it off and keep training, or do you think you you hurt it really badly?"

"Think s'sprained."

"Fuck dude." Reiner ran his hands through his hair. "Do you need help getting to the medic or do you just want me to tell the commander?"

Eren whipped around.

"_**Don't tell the commander."**_

Reiner frowned as he looked at Eren's face. His eyes were bright red and his cheeks were blotchy, covered in tear tracks he'd ovbiously tried to wipe away earlier.

"If you go to the medic he'll find out anyway man."

Eren shook his head. "No, its Mrs. Servott today. She's nice so if I ask her to write me off as sick for a day or two she'll do it."

She'd done it before after Eren had smacked his head attempting to learn how to stay upright with his faulty belt, allowing him to train the next day even though he _really _should have been on concussion watch.

"It takes a lot longer than that to heal a sprain," Reiner grimaced, "Remember Marco?"

"I know, but I just need a day or two for it to settle. Please, please just dont tell that commander." Eren pleaded.

Reiner looked down at Eren, who had gone back to facing away from him. To be honest Eren freaked him out a bit, with the continuous talk of killing titans and such, but damn if he didn't look pathetic here.

Deciding to take pity on him he responded, "Ok. I won't tell the commander, but promise me that you'll go straight to the medic."

"I will."

"And if it hurts too much or gets worse you'll actually tell the commander, and take the proper amount of time off."

"I will, but I really only need a day. It'll be fine after then."

Reiner sighed. He knew that Eren had stupid amounts of determination, emphasis on the stupid, but there was no way this was gonna end well.

"If you say so man." Reiner readjusted his cables as he prepared to take off back to the treetops. "See you later at mealtime."

Eren smiled, "Yeah, see ya."

He watched as Reiner took off to catch up to the others continuing the exercise, then waited until he could no longer hear the soft hissing of cables and gas canisters.

Hell no he wasn't going to the medic!

The second they looked at his wrist they'd know it was broken, fuck it looked even worse now that it'd been sitting untreated for a bit.

It had swollen up like a balloon as the area turned a shade of purple that looked lovely on some of the wildflowers that grew beneath the brush of the forest, but ultimately looked horribly wrong on human skin.

Eren got up as he scanned the area for long flat sticks.

He'd seen what his dad had done in these cases, and it was honestly pretty simple. All he had to do was find a bunch of sticks and wrap bandages around them to keep his wrist in place. After that all he had to do was wait!

A smile came to his face as he gingerly stepped forward to keep looking for what he needed, slower than he'd prefer to walk, but shit even though he was holding his wrist in place, each step sent jolts of pain through his whole arm.

A step. Scan. Another step. Scan. Just one foot after the other as he examined the forest floor until-

"Yes!" Eren hissed as he grabbed a couple small sticks.

They were perfect, strong enough to keep something in place, but small enough that nobody would notice beneath his thick regiment jacket.

His smile grew wider as he thought about how to arrange the sticks.

He would get away with it! They wouldn't send him back, and it would be nothing but a nuisance for a couple of days! It would barely even be a problem!

Eren grabbed the small roll of bandages that trainees were required to keep on them at all times. He'd thought the rule stupid at the time, as if you needed bandages for something it was most definently medic worthy, but was grateful for it now.

Quickly stripping off his regiment jacket, he began wrapping his wrist to keep the sticks in place and quickly noticed that he was short on bandages.

Way too short.

Eren huffed. Well that wasn't ideal.

He knew the bandages should cover the entirety of the splint, but he only had enough to go about halfway.

Maybe he could ask Armin or Mikasa for their bandages later?

Eren shook his head.

No, no, no, no, they'd ask way too many questions, and it just wasn't worth it. He'd rather just take off his hand and pretend nothing was wrong than attempt to weasel his way out of explaining not only why he needed more bandages, but what had happened to his own.

Tying the ends of the bandage into a knot he looked down at his own handy work and grimaced.

It looked ok, as long as he turned his head. And squinted.

Ok, it looked pretty bad.

But, if Eren was being honest with himself, it felt a little bit better now that it was stuck in place.

He took a quick peek at his fingers, and yeah, it didn't look any better.

Eren grabbed his jacket, slipping it over the splint in one quick motion, pleased that the sticks made no more that a small bulge in the sleeve.

Now all he had to do was ignore it for long enough for it to set and he was golden!

After around two hours of moving around Eren realized that he had heavily underestimated how much he uses his wrist on a daily basis.

Mrs. Servott had allowed for him to stay without any questions on the basis that he helped her with organizing the medicinal cabinets and finishing up with the laundry that came in once a week.

Of all the days to need a favor it just _**had **_to be laundry day.

Eren let out a quiet "_fuck_" as the large sheet he was folding fell to the floor.

"What's happenin' over there young man?" hollered Mrs. Servott from the other room, "Don't tell me that ya're unable to do some simple laundry."

Eren turned back around and attempted to sound exactly as cheerful as he didn't feel. "No ma'am, I just dropped the sheet I was trying to fold. It's difficult because s' so large."

Truth be told, it shouldn't have been that hard to fold, but only using one hand was slowing things down considerably.

He made a frustrated sound as he dropped the sheet for the third time, because _fucking Sina_ how hard could it be to just _fold a sheet._

"Hun if it's bugging ya that much, just go get with ya friends for supper. I can handle it myself." Came Mrs. Servotts' concerned voice behind him.

Eren jolted as he instinctively went to hide his arm behind his back.

"No, no, no s' all good!" He stammered, "I can do it, it's just a little difficult."

"Ya're not gonna get anything done just standing there dropping the blanket over and over again though, and supper starts at the next half hour. Just go and catch up for a bit."

Eren looked down at his feet. He knew she was right, but also didn't want to admit to himself that he'd been entirely useless all day.

"Thank you ma'am, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry bout' it sugar." She said, "Normally your not one to skive off trainin' so I know ya're here for a good reason. Just feel better or whatever you need quickly y'hear?"

Eren smiled softly. Most of the trainees liked Mrs. Servott due to her motherly attitude and genuine care for the cadets, which was especially refreshing after dealing with the cold unfeeling commander all day.

"I will ma'am. Thank you."

Eren gently placed the sheet back onto the cot it was meant to be folded on and spun on his heel to head for the exit.

Walls, he was so hungry he could eat a horse!

Within the mess hall Jean shivered.

Glancing over at Mikasa he noticed that her normal tag-along was nowhere to be seen. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Eren at all after the dodging portion of the exercise today, which was especially odd considering that he normally fought with him during the following attack portion.

Maybe he'd gotten hurt.

Firmly squashing down any portion of him that voiced concern, he slid into the booth next to Mikasa.

"So I see that the suicidal bastard decided not to show up to eat today," said Jean, "I mean I didn't see him much at training earlier either, has he started to become a skipper?"

Mikasa glanced over, attempting to decide if anything Jean had to say would be worth her time.

"He's not a skipper."

"I didn't say he was, but he sure had a lot of things to say about skippers for someone who didn't show up to the second half of training."

As much as she loathed to admit it, Jean was right. She hadn't seen Eren much today, and while he does normally somewhat avoid her, she hadn't even seen him at afternoon lineup, but Eren's normally not the type of person to skip anything, much less training.

Walls, she hoped he was ok.

Mikasa knew that Eren wouldn't miss out on even the most boring exercises from the commander, as if his life depended on it.

Considering the fact that he wanted to join the Survey Corps it very well might.

"I know. I saw." Replied Mikasa, but she couldn't stop thinking about what may have happened.

What if he got kidnapped? What if one of his blades had broken and stabbed him? What if one of the trainees finally snapped from hearing Eren talk about his neverending bloodlust and rage for titans far too many times and-

"Oh fuck off Jean, I'm not the one who missed out because I ate a random mushroom." Retorted Eren as he strode up to the booth they had been sitting at.

Jean flushed, "T-that was one time! And you're the one who said it was edible!"

"Oho, so now we're gonna blame the fact that you didn't pay attention to the clearly stated edible and non edible plants in class on me, now are we?" Smirked Eren, as he threw his arms up into a shrug. "and here I thought you said you were smart."

Jean seethed in his spot as he growled, "Yeah well at least I didn't miss training for no fucking reason, huh? You gonna explain yourself, or have you started becoming a skipper?"

Eren narrowed his eyes.

Fuck he hadn't though of a good excuse for missing part of training, and espically not one that would please Mikasa.

"Messed up as they pulled up a fake titan." Eren explained, waving his arms in dissismal. "Hit a branch with my stomach and got a little sick. Reiner forced me to go to the medic."

Mikasa pounced on him seconds after he finished, continually asking questions along the lines of "Are you ok? Where'd you hit? Is the bruise bad? Are you _sure_ you're ok?"

Eren shoved her off of him. "I'm fine, Walls I'm _fine, calm down!"_

"There's barely even a bruise now, I just hit the branch wrong or something kay'?"

She didn't look the least but convinced, but at least she had stopped trying to take his jacket off so that she could see the "injury".

He really didn't need her taking off his jacket and forcing him to explain the splint right now.

"Oh of course there's not really a bruise or anything." Jean sneered. "Mighty convenient the thing you're blaming skipping out training on training for has no proof."

"What the hell did you just say?!" Eren roared, slamming his fists onto the table.

"Exactly what you heard you fucking skevie."

"I didn't want to miss out, I got hurt you motherfucker!"

"Eren wouldn't miss training without a reason." supplied Mikasa

Jean furrowed his brows, caught between still attempting to talk to Mikasa and continuing his fight with Eren.

Eren turned to face her. "Thank you for having some common sense, unlike this goddamn animal." he spat.

"Oh typical." said Jean as he rolled his eyes, "You always turn to Mikasa or Armin when you're in a fight. Bastard can't even fight his own battles."

"I do **not** always turn to them!"

"Uh yeah sure, and what exactly were you just doing then?"

"I was thanking her for her help you dumb motherfucker!" Shouted Eren as he grabbed Jean's collar with both hands and prepared to throw him to the ground.

Wait, both hands?

He'd used his left wrist earlier too, now that he thought about it, when he'd hit the table and when he pushed Mikasa off of him, but hadn't felt anything.

It'd barely even registered.

His anger melted away like frost in the sunlight as he stared down at his left wrist.

He dropped Jean suddenly as he looked at his wrist, flexing his hand in circles as he wiggled his fingers back and forth.

There was no pain. None at all. It was like nothing had even happened in the first place.

He kept staring at his wrist in wonder, thinking how the hell had it gotten better so fast? It was definently broken, or at least hurt earlier, so why the fuck didn't it hurt at all now-

"Hey did something go wrong in that infinitesimally small brain of yours?"

Jean's voice voice snapped him out of his thoughts as his anger returned at a slow boil.

"Oh sorry, your stupidity wore off on me for a second there." Eren retorted, but he didn't have it in him to continue this argument.

Something was wrong, and he needed to look at it. There was no way if he had broken anything that it would feel any better by now, which meant it had probably only been a bruise.

But then why had it hurt so bad?

He knew what a broken bone looked like and his had held all signs short of the end of the bone sticking straight through his skin, there was no way it could have only been a bruise!

He needed to take the splint off, to look at his arm and see exactly what had happened. It was probably just a bruise he hit really hard, then freaked out about.

That was the only probable explanation for this, that was the only _**possible **_explanation for this.

"Hey, bitch, are you even listening to me?" Jean said as he snapped his fingers in front of Eren's face.

"Oh fuck off, who gives a shit about what you have to say?"

"Apparently you from how pissed you were getting earlier when I called you a skipper."

Eren frowned, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Go raid the stables and eat all the sugarcubes will ya? Maybe your mood will improve."

Not wanting to hear anything else Jean had to say, he sharply turned on his heel and quickly strode towards the front doors.

"Can you two just sit in quiet for three minutes- Eren where do you think you're going?" Mikasa called after him.

"I'm gonna go find Armin." He replied as he shut the door with a bit more force than necessary.

Well that was the second lie he had told about where he was headed that day- he really shouldn't make that a habit- because one of the last things Eren wanted to do at the moment.

He walked towards the woods in an attempt to find the clearing he knew would still be somewhat well lit by this time of night.

The sun had long since started going down, but a few stray rays allowed for enough visibility that Eren knew he wouldn't need any excess light.

He didn't want it anyway, better not to attract any attention.

As he found the clearing he quickly stripped off his jacket, throwing it onto the ground to pick up later.

He pushed up his sleeve and got to untying the knot keeping the bandages in place.

While a bruise that looked as awful as it did earlier wasn't ideal, as it would probably raise a couple of questions, it was still far preferable to any kind of true injury.

He ripped off the remainder of the bandages preparing himself to see that nasty shade of purple, fading off into green and yellow at the end and-

Nothing.

Nothing was on his wrist.

Eren stared dumbly for a few seconds because, excuse me _what the fuck!?_

He could believe that maybe he hadn't broken his wrist earlier, and had just freaked out.

He could believe that maybe it hadn't even been a sprain, he'd just hit the bony part and it hurt real bad.

_But nothing!?_

There had definently been fucking something there previosly, as he could still vividly remember the god awful shade it had been, and exactly how wrong it had looked, and how _fucking bad it hurt._

Eren dropped to his knees as he just kept staring, staring at the wound that should be.

Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong, because he had definitely at least hurt himself earlier?

_Fuck. _

_**Fuck.**_

He couldn't even ask anyone, because he'd done his damnedest to hide the bruising from everyone, so all he had to go off of was his memory which obviously had to be faulty, because people don't heal from bruises and broken bones in a matter of hours, _what the fuck-_

Eren screamed as he punched a tree with the wrist that should have been hurt, and _shit that __**hurt.**_

He looked down at his hands, bloody, with freshly forming bruises encircling his knuckles and asked _well!? Is this real or not!?_

He stared as he hands began to feel warm from the contact and what he had done hit him.

"Fuck." He gasped. "What the hell am I even doing?"

He ran his hands down his face, opening his eyes halfway through to see-

Steam?

Pulling his hands away from his face, Eren spun around looking for what, for who was the source of the steam, but he didn't see anyone.

The steam was coming from somewhere through, lazily floating past his eyes as he followed it to his source, looking down-

At his hands.

His hands.

Were steaming.

Personally Eren thought it was a reasonable response when he started screaming once more and flung his hands through the air in an attempt to get _whatever_ was causing the steam off of him.

Eren heaved as he looked down at his hands to see if he had gotten it off, but there was nothing there and they were still _steaming._

Yet it didn't hurt at all.

It didn't even feel warm.

Eren felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over him as he realized that it made no fucking sense for steam to not be warm and pulled his hands closed to his face.

On closer inspection the steam seemed to be coming from his knuckles, which Eren would have classified as fucking weird on it's own, but that wasn't the only thing happening.

As the steam rose the small cuts began to knit themselves together, as bruises went from deep purple to blue, to green, to yellow, then faded entirely, as if they'd never been there in the first place.

Just like the bruise on his wrist.

"What the fuck. What _the actual fuck!"_ Cried Eren.

This definetly wasn't fucking normal, people weren't supposed to steam, and they weren't supposed to heal that fast, and they weren't supposed to be like this but-

But titans were.

Titans steamed as they healed, and Walls they healed almost instantly, just like, just like-

Eren dropped to his knees and abruptly threw up.

It was more bile than anything, as he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, hadn't really had an appetite for food at all.

Just like the titans-

Tears bubbled over his cheeks and hit the ground as he continued to dry heave on the ground, everything that could possibly come up already gone.

He couldn't be a titan, he couldn't be related to those motherfuckers that killed his mom.

He couldn't be related to the _things_ that made his life a living hell.

After he finished, he pushed himself away from the bile and laid on the ground, fully spent.

Tears continued to fall as he thought about the ramifications of this discovery, if he started acting like a titan, if he started to harm others, _Walls_ if Mikasa and Armin found out.

They would hate him.

They would fucking despise him, leave him for dead, maybe even take matters into their own hands to get rid of the _monster_ among them.

**No.**

No, he wouldn't be like that.

He refused to act like those mindless beasts that strolled outside the walls, the ones who kept all of humanity trapped in this birdcage that we dared to call a paradise.

He fucking wouldn't.

Pushing himself up into a sitting position he furiously wiped away the tears and vomit staining his face.

So what if he had an attribute or two making him like a titan? It wasn't as if he was craving human flesh or attacking people?

And he was pretty fucking sure he wasn't fifteen meters tall.

His eyes widened as he came to a realization.

He...he had only gotten the benefits that a titan receives.

Just the rapid healing, nothing else.

A small chuckle escaped him, quickly rolling into full blown laughter as he threw a hand over his face.

How could he be so _stupid?_

He could heal, _he could heal!_ He could protect Mikasa, Armin and everyone else by being the spearhead for danger!

No one would have to lose limbs- no one would have to die! He could protect them!

Eren smiled as he looked down at his hands- healing! Ah what a gift to be given!

(A part of him said no, this isn't normal, this is wrong, this is how titans heal and he's supposed to be human, a full blooded human- but he shoved that down as quickly as it popped up.)

Although he knew he could heal from bruises, and broken bones, and cuts in a matter of seconds and hours, he still had no clue what the extent of this healing was. How quick it could be, how it would look to others.

Exactly how _much_ he could heal.

Grabbing his jacket from the pile of leaves it was now sitting in, he threw it on as he began his trek back to the barracks.

It was far past supper by now, but that didn't matter.

He only had one goal in mind, one objective.

He _needed_ to know what the extent of his abilities were.

Eren felt a wicked grin come to his face as he chewed on the end of the nail on his thumb.

He needed to _**test. **_


	3. Literally No One Believes You

Despite getting back to the barracks far after lights out, Eren was able to slip back into his bunk with little fuss, only getting a hushed, "Where have you been?" from Reiner.

Eren pressed a finger to his lips, then pointed to his wrist as he made his way to his bunk.

As he approached his bed, he quickly glanced over to see that Armin was sleeping soundly.

Good. As much as Eren loved him, he could often be far too nosy, and with the ramifications of what Eren had just discovered weighing on his back, he wasn't sure how long he could keep it a secret.

Eren pulled back the thin sheet given to all trainees upon arrival-really they may as well have just given them a bunch of tissues sewn together for all it did to keep them warm-and set to forcing his hand underneath the mattress covering.

Although trainees were later given 3DMG blades once maneuvering practice started, the beginnings of camp were a strictly no-weapons zone. If anyone was caught with so much as a letter opener, it was confiscated and the trainee punished appropriately.

No one really knew why this was the case, as eventually every cadet would be given blades much more dangerous than any knife they could smuggle in, but apparently it was an old standing rule that had stemmed from multiple issues.

Something about fights and dead cadets.

Despite the policy, small blades and the like often ran rampant throughout the camp, and could be used as a bargaining chip for a wide array of favors, ranging from extra food to a change in duties.

For that reason most trainees hid their blades off their person unless they were planning on making a trade, as losing a blade was the same as losing currency.

Yet, despite the value and status they held, no cadet ever really needed them, as the blades were much more effective at cutting and knives had been supplied previously whenever they were needed.

As such, Eren kept his stash untouched, hidden within his straw mattress.

While wholly uninterested in trades, he just didn't feel safe without at least one knife, as what if he needed it to defend from kidnappers or thugs attacking the camp in the hope of stealing some 3DMG?

That was a perfectly good reason to keep ten knives of varying sizes hidden within his mattress and around the camp.

As he pushed his arm up to his bicep into his mattress he pushed and dug through the straw until-

There!

He gripped one of the small pocket knives that he'd hidden within his mattress and quickly withdrew his hand.

Looking down he noticed that it was the red folding knife he'd pickpocketed off of Daz within his first few days at the camp.

Aw. He'd been hoping it'd be the silver one.

Eren tugged off his boots, dropping the knife in and folding the top over to conceal the glint of metal, just in case someone noticed it in the morning.

He'd much rather have snuck in during dinner and grabbed the knife rather than having to carry it around all day, but he knew that he'd already built up a ton of suspicion from Mikasa and Jean by skipping today, and he'd much rather take the punishment for being found with a knife than have anyone find out what he planned to do with it.

Walls, that'd be an awkward conversation.

Shoving his boots beneath the bed, he glanced over and realized that he'd never actually properly put up his 3DMG straps, as when he'd taken them off earlier it'd been impossible to do with only one hand.

He glared at the straps, knowing that they'd be an issue tomorrow if he didn't fix them now, but fuck, he was practically already in bed and could feel the sleep pulling at his eyes.

He sighed.

Whatever, that was future Eren's problem.

As expected, future Eren was not pleased with past Eren's decision to sleep instead of fixing his straps.

"Fuck, _fuck, __**fuck!**_" Cried Eren as he tried in vain to untangle the mess that was the waist belt.

Everyone else except for Armin had already left, making sure to be early in case they incurred the wrath of the commander, which would end up especially bad before breakfast.

Lineup was in about ten minutes, and on a _good day_ it normally took him about ten minutes to fully gear up and adjust the straps to his liking, and today was _not_ a good day.

"You doing ok there Eren?" Came Armin's concerned voice from beside him, "You seem like you're struggling a bit."

Eren glared at him as he finally figured out that he had gotten the left clasp flipped around.

"_You think!?_"

"Waoh, chill out. You've got time to put your stuff on, you might just not be able to adjust it until after lineup." Said Armin as he calmly tightened his chest strap. "If you tell me where your boots are, I can grab em' for you."

Finally shrugging the gray piece that connected the straps up onto his back Eren responded, "That'd be great man, I think I left them under-"

Suddenly Eren had a flashback to what he'd done last night.

Oh shit, if Armin picked up his boots Eren knew he'd feel the extra weight from the knife and would definitely start asking questions.

An excuse like 'I planned to make a trade!' wouldn't work as Eren knew that he'd previously explained to Armin how he hated everything about the knife trading system, down to the most minute detail.

"Under the uhhhhhh.."

Eren glanced over to see Armin's face furrow in confusion. Fuck he had to be quick about this or Armin would become suspicious.

"Y'know what?" Eren asked, "I don't really remember, but I'll look for them. You should go line up though, there's not a whole ton of time left."

"We've still got about seven minutes, and it'll go a lot faster if I help you look y'know."

Eren started to sweat. Walls he hoped he didn't look as nervous as he felt.

"No, no, no, no, it's totally good! They're probably in one of the places I normally put them so I'll find them quickly. You should go tell Mikasa that I'm not dead though, she's probably freaking out by now."

Armin still looked relatively confused, but ultimately agreed to head out to talk with Mikasa.

"Just so you know, it's now your own fault if you end up late." Armin called out as he headed for the door.

Eren smiled nervously as he fidgeted with his chest strap. "Yeah, yeah I got it!"

As Armin walked out the door Eren flew into flurry, ripping his boots from under his bed and retrieving the pocket knife.

Sina that could have been so bad, thank Walls he'd been able to come up with a good enough excuse to fool Armin on the spot.

(Armin, for his part, was entirely unconvinced that Eren hadn't been attempting to hide something from him, but if Eren had been that anxious and it involved his boots, Armin _**really**_ didn't want to know)

Eren clipped the knife to the front of his shin, using one of the straps that criss-crossed as a hold, and pushed the knife down as far as it would go before hindering his ankle movement.

In one swift motion, he pulled own both of his boots and was pleased to see that the small bulge of the knife was hidden by the folds in his boot.

He moved his foot in a circle to check and- yep, it was hidden no matter which way he moved.

Good.

This was good.

Now all he had to do was wait until free time after dinner and he'd be able to test all he wanted!

Lineup had been an overall boring affair, but Eren hadn't been able to get over the feeling of someone watching him.

He was used to the normal stare of Mikasa, constantly checking if he was doing ok-which yes, he was fine, Walls she didn't have to worry so much-but this was different.

Someone was boring holes into his back and Eren shuddered, feeling much like a bird being stalked by a cat.

He was tempted to turn around, just to see who the hell had suddenly decided that he was the most interesting thing to look at today, but his growling stomach and the commander's threat of having anyone who broke formation run their way through breakfast had him staring directly forward.

That didn't stop him from squirming in place though, as seconds seemed to suddenly tick by much slower.

Fuck, this sucked.

After morning lineup Eren headed straight to the mess hall, thoroughly weirded out by whatever _that_ was.

On his way he met up with Armin and Mikasa, both of which were not amused by his disappearing act from the previous day.

"So Eren, would you like to tell me exactly where you went yesterday?" Asked Mikasa, as she stepped in front of him to block his path.

Eren averted his eyes as he responded, "I told you as I was leaving didn't I? I went to look for Armin."

Armin and Mikasa shared a look.

"Eren I was in the barracks reading the entire time."

Shit.

"Yeah, well I thought that maybe you'd been practicing out by that tree you like so much." He retorted, "I got back after you were asleep because it takes a while to get out there y'know?"

He knew his ears must have been bright red by now, but the sun had been beating down on everyone as they stood in line, so hopefully it wasn't that obvious.

Armin shook his head. "But it should only take half an hour to get out there and back, and Jean said he was one of the last asleep and didn't see you come back."

Fucking fuck, Jean just had to go and open his mouth didn't he. Walls, Eren was gonna kick his ass today in hand to hand practice for that.

"Why would you ever believe anything Jean says man, you know he hates my guts."

"Yes, but you were acting really weird yesterday? Are you sure there's not _anything _you need to tell us?

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I think you guys are just looking way too far into this."

Both Armin and Mikasa looked at him in concern before finally deciding to continue walking forward.

Walls that had been close.

He knew that neither Mikasa nor Armin were stupid, hell Armin's intellegence was his defining trait, but fuck he hadn't expected them to start catching on so early.

He'd have to be much more careful in the future.

As they approached the mess hall the trio noticed that their usual spot had been taken over by Hannah and Franz so that they could do whatever weird couple thing they pleased, and as a result the rest of the cadets had decided to give them a wide berth.

Eren grimaced and turned back to Armin and Mikasa.

"Can we uh, not sit there today?"

Both nodded enthusiastically-or at least Armin did and Mikasa followed- as they scanned the mess hall for other open seats.

Jean was siting at the table, that one was full, another one was full, Sasha was at that one and almost done eating, and aha!

Towards the back Annie, Bertholt, and Reiner were closely huddled together, but other than that, the rest of the table looked clear.

"Hey do you guys mind sitting with their crew today?" Asked Eren

Armin shook his head, "At this point I'm hungry enough that'd I'd deal with Hannah and Franz if I had to."

Mikasa shrugged noncommittally.

Quickly grabbing food, they strode over to the table the trio was still huddled at and sat down.

The three jolted apart, seeming to not have expected anyone else to decide to join them.

The six stared at each other in silence before Eren finally asked, "Yo, do you mind if we sit here? Franz and Hannah kind of uh, occupied our table."

They continued to stare for a second before Reiner finally responded, "Uh yeah, man sure." He turned back to Annie and Bertholdt and asked, "Do you guys mind?"

Bertholt quickly stammered out a "n-no it's all good," while Annie simply shrugged.

"Ok, cool." said Eren as he began to eat.

All six ate in uncomfortable silence before Reiner cleared his throat and turned to Eren.

"So Eren how's your wr-"

He was roughly cut off as Eren slammed the side of his fist into his chest, causing Bertholt and Annie, who were sitting across from him, to jump.

"My chest? Oh it's a lot better now, there's barely even a bruise left!" Blurted Eren, "Thanks for being concerned though, Mrs. Servott was really understanding when I told here."

Eren smiled at Reiner, but it seemed a little forced, and didn't quite meet his eyes.

Now, Reiner was not the brightest guy when it came to social interaction, but even he could see the obvious strain in both Eren's smile and arm, which was still closed in a fist in the center of his chest, and screamed 'finish that sentance, I fucking dare you.'

Although Reiner didn't doubt that he was overall stronger than him, Eren was vicious and unpredictable, and Reiner was honestly a little terrified of whatever lurked behind his facade of normality, so he decided to go along with whatever Eren was trying to do.

"Yeah...sorry about that, you just looked a little messed up out there." Wheezed Reiner as he attempted to catch his breath.

Fuck, Eren could hit hard when he wanted to.

"Messed up?" Questioned Mikasa, suddenly becoming invested in the conversation. "What do you mean?"

She'd leaned over the table, invading Reiner's personal space to the point where he thought she was aiming to clock him.

Reiner flinched back as he glanced over to Annie for help.

Annie just stared back at him unimpressed, her glare seeming to say 'You got yourself into this, good luck getting yourself out.'

Eren wasn't being any help either, as he'd removed the hand from Reiner's chest, but was still staring at him like he was about to spill of Eren's deepest secrets.

"He just looked like he was in a lot of pain y'know." Reiner muttered as Eren began to glare holes into the side of his head, "And I don't really think I've ever seen him cry from pain, so I thought it was really bad-"

"You were _**crying**__!_?" Exclaimed Mikasa, as she whipped around to face Eren, and oh boy Reiner immediately knew that had _**not**_ been a smart thing to say.

Eren glared even harder at him as he responded, "It's just because threw up, I always end up tearing up when I do."

"Not any time I remember." Butted in Armin, and suddenly Reiner wished that he was literally anywhere else than in the direct crossfire between the three friends.

"Ok fine, I hit the branch really hard and it hurt but I'm fine now!" shouted Eren as he threw his hands into the air, "Now can we _please_ drop the topic?"

"No, not until you tell me exactly what happened."

Reiner dropped his head into his hands and looked across from where he was sitting in an attempt to have Annie and Bertholdt help him out of this, only to see that they had already left.

And he still had half a plate of food left.

Fuck this was gonna be a long breakfast.

Unsurprisingly after breakfast had ended Eren was pissed.

Well, he was always pissed- a never ending rage for titans will do that to you-but this was different.

He was pissed because no matter what he said, no matter would he did, Armin and Mikasa just _wouldn't drop the fucking topic._

They just kept asking whether he was ok, if anything still hurt, if that was the _only thing that had happened._

Of course it wasn't what had happened, but what was he gonna do? Tell the truth and explain how he'd healed from something that normally takes days in minutes and say 'ok so I might be somewhat related to titans, but it's all cool, I'm still the same Eren you've known, just with some extra healing.'?

Yeah, because that would go over so well.

Truth be told he was actually somewhat touched at the fact that they held such concern for his well being, but fucking hell could they just chill out for a couple minutes? They acted as if he was still the ten year old who cried at scraped knees and bruised elbows, not a highly capable soldier in training.

Because of this, the second the commander ordered everyone to branch out and pair up, he moved as far as possible from the two and searched for someone who _wouldn't _ask to many questions.

Although he'd planned on kicking Jean's ass before breakfast, as he looked around he noticed that Jean had already gained a sparring partner.

Actually most of the camp had already found a partner, except for-

Oh fuck, Annie didn't have a partner.

Whatever, that was fine. Normally Annie didn't take training too seriously and just stood off on her own, so all he had to stick close to another pair and hope that the Commander didn't see him.

Unfortunately as Eren continued to scan the field, he accidently locked eyes with her and she began walking.

Directly towards him.

Fuck that wasn't good.

"You got a partner?" She asked.

"Ah no, but I don't think that-"

She cut him off with a wave of a hand, "Good I don't have one either."

Eren gulped. He _reall_y didn't feel like getting his ass kicked into the next century today.

"But before we start I have a few questions."

"Huh?"

_That_ had caught him off guard. Out of the whole year that everyone had been that camp, he hadn't seen Annie even attempt to learn anything about the other cadets, much less straight up ask questions.

"I've got questions for you." she repeated cooly. "Are you going to answer them or not?"

"Y-yeah! What do you need to know."

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she stepped in closer and lowered her voice.

"Why did you lie to Mikasa and Armin about your wrist?"

Eren's smile dropped. So Reiner had told her after all.

"What's it matter to you?" Eren spat back.

"Nothing much really, I'm just curious." She responded. "It's just that I've never seen you lie to them that much until today, so I have to admit, it made me curious."

Eren narrowed his eyes at her. Just curious? Yeah right, he knew there was another reason.

"They fuss over me too much." Eren explained. "If I told them that I messed up and bruised my wrist they'd freak out and try to get me to skip training for a few days."

"Bruised?" Annie asked, her eyebrows raised, "I was under the impression that it was sprained."

"Yeah, well it wasn't. I just hit it really hard."

"Hm."

The two stood in silence for a minute as Annie continued to stare at him, arms crossed.

She finally broke the silence by sighing and responded, "Alright then. I believe you."

Eren opened his mouth to thank her but was silenced by her saying, "But I hope that you know I'm not going to go easy on you just because of one little bruise."

Fuck.

Despite the earlier insistence, come dinner Mikasa and Armin seemed to have stopped asking Eren about the incident, if only to keep him from getting angrier than he already was.

He supposed the rough core muscle training session from earlier also helped keep conversation to a minimum.

Oddly enough, even though he'd felt the strain of being pushed to his limits earlier, soon after he'd stopped the strain lessened, and within an hour or so had totally disappeared. He didn't feel the telltale signs of soreness that would last for the next couple days, nor did he feel the burn of exertion that comes with a difficult workout.

Come to think of it, he couldn't remember any time during training when soreness or tenderness in his muscles lasted for more than an hour or two.

Eren supposed it may have been due to his newfound healing abilities, as he'd heard from Armin before that the reason your muscles hurt after using them was because working out actually put small tears in them. That was why they got stronger too, apparently. When your body healed up, it'd build your muscles up even stronger than before.

But the weird thing was that even though he'd been training for over a year, and had certainly gotten stronger, Eren couldn't remember a single day that he'd felt sore.

He remembered the feeling from when he was a child, the deep ache he'd feel in his arms for _days_ after carrying heavy logs down from the field.

But that begged the question, if he wasn't always able to heal, then when did he start being able to?

When did he go from normal human healing, to wounds closing right before his eyes.

He could remember scraped knees as a child- the kind his mother always used to kiss as she rinsed off in the river-, torn up palms, and bruised knuckles. Those always felt like they'd taken forever to heal.

So when? _What the hell had happened_ to cause him to-

"Yo, earth to Eren! Anyone in there!" Said Armin as he waved a hand in front of Eren's face.

Eren blinked once, then twice, before finally realized that he'd just been staring off into space for a little while.

Ah, that'd probably been a little concerning.

"Yeah, I'm good." Eren responded, "Sorry just got caught up thinking about somethin'."

Armin opened his mouth to respond but not before Jean butted in saying, "Well that's a rare sight to see. Eren actually thinking about something?"

"Well at least it's spotted rarely." Eren retorted. "Don't think I've ever seen you think _anything_ through."

"Especially not when talking to Mikasa." Armin quipped.

Jean's mouth dropped open as Eren turned to smirk at him.

"Oh, ouch, think he hit that nail right on the head."

"At least I don't perform a disappearing act anytime somebody starts to win an argument against me."

Eren raised his eyebrows. "That's assuming you were winning the argument yesterday."

Jean scoffed, "If I wasn't you wouldn't have had any reason to run away then."

Eren quickly stood up and leaned over the table, "I _wasn't_ running away."

"Oh really? Then why'd you leave?"

"I went to go look for Armin."

"Yeah, and that couldn't wait until after you were done getting verbally ass kicked?"

Eren seethed. He _hadn't_ fucking run away, he'd had some very important business to take care of, but of course he couldn't fucking say that.

"Y'know what? Fuck you and your fucking horse face." He spat as he moved away from the table, towards the exit. "I'd rather sit and listen to the commander rake a blade across the chalkboard than listen to any more of what you have to say."

Eren stomped through the main doors, making sure to slam them hard enough that a few cadets near the front jumped in their seats.

Jean just looked back down to Mikasa and Armin. Well he certainly hadn't been expecting Eren to admit defeat-and so easily!- but it's not like he was complaining.

"Could you not antagonize him for one day?" Armin asked, sounding exhausted.

Mikasa nodded next to him.

Jean frowned. "He's normally the one that starts it!"

"Yes I understand but," Armin faltered, making sure to choose his words very carefully, "I'm not sure if you noticed but, somethings' wrong...or bothering him at the very least."

The unfortunate thing was, Jean _had_ noticed, and even though he thought of Eren of a suicidal jackass, the mood swing or _whatever _had happened within the past day was throwing him off.

So he'd tried to do the only thing he knew how to do well, get Eren to fight him. Then hopefully he'd be out of whatever funk he'd been in, because as much as he didnt want to admit it, with all his pathetic drivel about wanting to kill all titans, Eren had wormed his way into being one of the people Jean cared about.

Jean swung himself around the side of the bench seated at the table, placing his elbow on the table and resting his face upon his hand.

"Yeah I noticed." Jean sighed. "What the fuck is up with that?"

"We don't really know." Mikasa responded, her eyes downcast. "We think it has something to do with what happened during maneuver training yesterday, but he won't tell us anything but the basics."

"So you think he hurt himself more than he'd admit?"

Mikasa shifted in her seat. That was a very real possibility, but she still couldn't shake the fact that there was something else, something else that was causing him to clam up entirely.

Eren was never good at lying, and she swears on her life that he'd only gotten worse with time, but it made sense because _he never needed to li_e. He'd downplay things to be sure, but never outright lie to both her and Armin.

To be honest, it hurt a lot that he felt the need to hide whatever was bothering him from her.

Armin glanced over at Mikasa, eyes still downcast.

"We don't really know." He admitted. "He's hurt himself bad before, but normally he just acts like it's not a big deal and gets over it."

"Huh." Jean responded. "Do you think he's going to tell you what's happening?"

Armin simply shrugged. "Who knows. Eren can be really stubborn about this kinda thing. We just have to hope that he's either willing to tell us, or gets over it by himself soon."

Unfortunately for them, Eren had zero plans of telling anyone of his discoveries if he could help it.

As he exited the mess hall, he stomped off toward the clearing he'd been in the previous night, the weight of the pocket knife strapped to his shin feeling heavier with every step.

He wasn't a fucking coward, nor did he rely on Mikasa and Armin for everything, and he was going to prove it!

As he entered the clearing he stripped off his regiment jacket, this time taking care to fold it before placing it on the ground.

His boots and 3DMG straps joined the pile as he unclipped the pocket knife from the shin straps.

So far he knew that a (probably) broken bone healed within hours, and bruises or scrapes within minutes, but knew little to nothing about larger scale injuries that were more likely to occur in the field.

Like large cuts and amputations.

Eren started to sweat as he opened the knife, the cold metal glinting in the remaining sunlight.

Fuck he was really going to do this wasn't he.

Ok, first things first, he had to make sure that what had seen yesterday hadn't been a hallucination, a trick of the light, or whatever else it could have been.

He placed his left hand out, closing all of his fingers except the pointer into a fist and slowly lowered the blade to his finger, until the tip pressed uncomfortably into the finger pad.

Eren took a deep breath.

'Ok, here goes nothing.' He thought as he began to apply pressure to the handle.

There was resistance at first, then the blade slipped through the top layer of skin, moving deeper as it create a clean line down the center of his fingerpad, and _oh fuck that kinda hurt._

Eren quickly withdrew the knife and wrapped his hand around the base of his finger to stifle the bleeding that had already began to pool and drip over the side.

He stared at his finger for what felt like ages as nothing continued to happen, the falling blood starting to stain the leaves beneath him.

"Walls, what am I doing?" He asked himself as he shakily let go of his hand and allowed it to fall to his side.

Of course it wasn't gonna heal, what kind of _fucking idiot_ would think that-

He stopped his line of thought as he heard a soft hiss, not unlike the kind he hears as someone approaches with 3DMG, but it was too quiet, nothing like the loud exhale of gas canisters, and the zip of launching cables.

He looked down at his hand and-

Ah. It was steaming.

So this was real then.

Eren brought his hand up to his face as he watched the final seconds of his finger healing, the steam dissipating as the wound fully sealed.

Ok, fuck it was offical. He was a freak of nature then.

Gripping the handle of his knife tightly, he thought about what to do next.

In the Survey corps, two main injuries were common, and accounted for about ninety percent of the deaths outside of combat.

Lacerations and amputations.

Truth be told Eren didn't want to test either, but he _needed_ to if he wanted to be able to protect everyone. He'd rather mess up now than on the field when it mattered.

Eren weighed his options. If he decided on a laceration, it'd have to be someplace undetectable _**and**_ would have to be non-lethal if it didn't heal, but with an amputation…

Eren looked down at his hands, wriggling his fingers for a couple seconds, then his bare feet.

Fingers were too noticeable. Even if he didn't need his pinkies to properly operate 3DMG, it'd be impossible to explain exactly why he's suddenly missing a finger if it didn't grow back. _But_ if he took off one of his toes, even if it didn't grow back, the chances of somebody noticing were low.

Abysmally low.

He scanned his area, noticing a large branch that had probably fallen during one of the storms weeks prior.

Perfect.

As he strode over to the log, he stopped by the small pile of clothes he'd made and retrieved his regiment jacket, unfolding it to gain better access to the sleeve.

He dropped roughly in front of the branch and placed his right foot onto its side, while folding his left leg in front of him. He then balled up the sleeve of the jacket and stuffed it into his mouth, effectively gagging himself. This way if, no _when,_ he ended up screaming, hopefully it wouldn't be too loud.

Breathing through his nose, Eren used his left hand to fold all of his toes, except his pinky down, as he shakily brough the knife closer.

He stared at it as it moved down, _down_, ever closer to Eren's flesh, until it was simply resting on the bendable joint of his toe.

He could do this, he _**had **_to do this.

The knife went a little farther forward, it's sharp edge beginning to bite into his skin and-

Eren dropped the knife, shivering violently.

He couldn't do this.

_Fuck, he __**couldn't **__do this! _

Foot still on the log, Eren placed his head into his hands as he tried to get his shaking under control.

Walls, why couldn't he do it? It was just one quick motion, one quick slice, and that was it. Just one push right through the small bone.

He'd heard of people breaking that bone with the simplest of things- a box being dropped, a trip after a missed step, or even just from fucking stubbing their toe- so why _couldn't he do it_!?

He clamped down harder on the mass of fabric still between his teeth as he picked up the knife once more and set the sharp end on the small cut he'd previously made.

He just had to apply a little bit more pressure, hold it a bit more steady and he'd be golden.

Just a little bit more.

Eren inhaled deeply, closing his eyes-

And _**shoved.**_

For a second he felt nothing-heard nothing except a sharp ringing in his ears as his vision momentarily went white.

And then the pain started.

Not too bad at first, just a small burn, similar to when he'd sliced his finger on the thick sheets of paper the military uses to make sure they have the correct person.

But soon, it began to throb and, like a wildfire, the pain spread through his system, setting every nerve alight on it's way up.

Eren dropped, throwing his back against the ground as he screamed into the jacket still lodged in his mouth, because it hurt, _holy shit it hurt_, _make it stop,_ _**make it stop**_.

He didn't even notice that he had started crying until he'd brought an arm up to cover his face, still gripping the knife, and it'd come away wet.

Then, as quickly as it'd come, the pain began to recede. It felt as if someone had pumped his veins full of ice water, and if he hadn't already been crying, he would have started from relief.

As the pain continued to fade Eren ripped the sleeve of his jacket out of his mouth and gulped down precious air. Tears stained his cheeks, but no longer threatened to fall as he continued to lay in the dirt.

Weakly, Eren picked up his head to look at his foot and-

It'd grown back.

_It'd grown back!_

Eren smiled as he let his head fall back onto the dirt. From where he was sitting, he could see the toe he'd severed, meaning that he wasn't just able to heal and close small injuries, he could _regenerate_!

Although it definitely felt a little weird to be staring at one of his own severed appendages.

He looked back at his foot, then down to where the toe was sitting. Ok, it was more than a little weird.

He carefully placed the knife he'd been holding down onto the dirt next to him as he pushed himself up on shaky legs. His jacket now had a large wet splotch about halfway up the sleeve, but he ignored it in favor of trying to bring back some warmth to his body.

Even though it was still mid-spring and the temperature had been steadily increasing, Eren could feel himself shivering like it was an icy winter night.

He slowly made his way over to his boots and straps, both starting to become covered by leaves, as he focused on not applying too much pressure on his right foot.

Though the skin had fully healed and looked as good as new, it was extremely sensitive, so he wanted to avoid small rocks and twigs at all costs.

First he yanked on his boots, wincing at the feel of his new skin on the rough leather, then he set to untangling his straps. Although he could carry them back, tangled as they were, it'd be much easier is they were folded into a small pile.

And not a mess of knots like this morning.

Trudging back to the barracks, he watched as the rays shining between the trees began to wane, then disappear completely, as the sun continued it's descent towards the horizon. He'd be getting back to the barracks after dark, but before lights out, so hopefully his disappearance wouldn't be cause for too much suspicion.

Even though it was earlier than he'd normally prefer to sleep, he could feel tiredness tugging at his eyelids as each step seemed to become heavier and heavier.

Exhaustion wasn't an _unexpected_ consequence of his newfound abilities per se, but it was certainly an unwelcome one. He'd have to see if he could find a way to lessen its effects, because being able to to take a hit or two in the field and come out fine was great, but of literally no use if immediately passed out afterwards.

Once he got within viewing distance of the barrack doors, Eren noticed that Armin was approaching as well, absorbed in a thick book, as usual.

Hopefully he'd be too distracted to notice anything and Eren just slip by, right into the doors and-

"Oh-Eren, where have you been?"

No such luck.

Eren turned around to see Armin jogging over to see him, his book now tucked under his arm.

He shrugged, "Oh y'know, just prowling around the woods, practicin'."

"Ah, were you working on the kicking technique Annie demonstrated today!" Armin beamed, "It's so interesting with all the factors that she has to take into account in order for the kick to be effective, I mean if her center of balance is just a little bit off-"

Eren began to tune him out.

On a normal day he would have loved-well, not loved but tolerated-hearing Armin ramble on about the physics and science of one technique or another, but _Walls_ all Eren wanted to do right now was throw himself onto the shitty military beds and pass out until further notice.

"_Eren, __**Eren**_!" said Armin as he suddenly noticed a pair of fingers snapping in front of his face.

"Oh… sorry I uh, stopped paying attention for a minute there."

Instead of looking at him with mild annoyance like he usually did, Armin only stared back at him with concern.

"Yes, I could see that but are you doing ok?"

"What do you mean?"

Armin frowned as he brought his hands closer to Eren's face. "I dunno, you just seem really tired… and you look really pale as well."

He placed the back of his hand against Eren's forehead, but quickly pulled it back as he felt the hot skin underneath.

"Eren you're burning up!"

Eren blinked, not really comprehending what Armin had to say. Couldn't he wait until morning to try to talk to him?

"Ah, ok." He responded as he pushed Armin's hand back down to his side. "M' gonna go sleep now if that's it."

As Eren turned back to walk into the barracks Armin grabbed his shoulder, roughly spinning him around.

His world swirled for a moment before he was finally able to focus his eyes on Armin, who was saying _something_, but Eren couldn't quite discern what.

"Eren you felt really really warm, and you've been acting super weird for the past two days." said Armin, his brow furrowed in concern. "I think you might have a fever."

Eren squinted down at him. He could tell that Armin was concerned, but was it really that big a deal? If he was a little warm, it'd probably go away once he got some sleep.

"Ok."

He attempted to turn around to head inside and finally, finally get some rest, but Armin's hand stayed firm on his shoulder

"Eren this is serious. You need to go to the medic."

Eren huffed. What part of 'I'm tired. I want to go to sleep.' Didn't he understand?

"I don't wanna."

"_Eren_."

Armin was now gripping his shoulder even harder, and while he was touched by the concern of his friend, he was more annoyed with the fact that he just _wouldn't let him. Go. To. __**Sleep**__._

"I'll do it tomorrow." Eren responded, pulling Armin's hand off of his shoulder. "Right now is sleeping time."

He could see Armin's concerned expression deepen, but couldn't find it in himself to care as he finally, _finally, _made his way into the barracks.

When he entered he could hear the usual yelling, mostly coming from Connie and Jean as the former jumped from empty bunk to empty bunk, _something_ in his hands_._

As he strode over to his bed he heard Jean hollering his name from a few bunks down-probably attempting to start a fight, as usual- but honestly couldn't bring himself to care.

When he reached his bunk he placed his straps on the ground, kicked off his boots, then threw himself onto the bed, out before his head even hit the pillow.


	4. That Concludes Knife Safety Camp!

When Eren woke up, he honestly didn't remember talking to Armin the night before, much less agreeing to anything.

"Eren you promised!" Armin pouted as he pulled on his sleeve in an attempt to pull Eren towards the medic office.

Eren sighed, "I already told you I really don't remember agreeing to anythin'."

"Seriously Eren, you looked _walls_ awful last night, all you have to do is go get a quick check up."

"I get that you think I looked bad last night but look at me now," Eren responded as he gestured towards his face, "Does this look like someone who is sick?"

Armin frowned. "You can never know-and why are you being so stubborn about this! Just go get your temperature and if you're fine you'll be able to make it back in time for lineup."

"I'm being stubborn because there's no point in possibly missing part of morning lineup, making the commander mad, for absolutely no reason!"

"So you're admitting that you don't have a legitimate reason to not go?"

"Huh?" Eren responded, confused.

"The commander doesn't mind if you're late because of the medic, due to the plague scare a few months back." Armin smirked as he crossed his arms.

Shit, Eren had forgotten about that, despite it being the whole reason he was sure his plan to hide his wrist injury by pretending to be sick would work.

Around three months back, a couple of recruits had returned from visiting their families in the Calaneth district just a few days before an epidemic struck. Although they knew about the situation, because they hadn't been showing symptoms at the time, they weren't allowed to be exempt from training.

By the time the worst of the sickness was upon them they'd already infected half of the camp.

While it was much less intense in the camp, due to easier access to medical supplies, a number of cadets were rendered totally unable to train for weeks, even months afterwards.

(Some had also died, but Eren preferred not to think about that.)

Eren huffed, "It's a perfectly legitimate reason to not want to go! Plus what if he says something important during lineup?"

"Then I'll tell you later, but for _walls sake just visit the medic!_" Armin practically shouted, throwing his hands into the air. "You literally have no reason not to!"

Eren grimaced. He certainly had a couple of reasons he really didn't want to, but it wasn't like he could tell Armin.

"Look, I just don't want to, Ok?"

"Eren…"

He decided to look away, knowing exactly what was coming.

Armin looked up at him, lowering his eyebrows and starting to tear up for effect. "Y'know I'm just concerned for you right? Both me and Mikasa."

Fuck, this was part of what Eren was worried about. At some point Armin had realized that he could play both of his friends like a fiddle simply by playing up the whole 'I'm weak and need to be protected and only care about your wellbeing act' and despite the fact that Eren knew full well it was a trick, Sina was Armin good at it.

Eren turned away and crossed his arms.

"No, we've got lineup in twenty five minutes and there's no point."

"C'mon Eren it'll be quick, plus you don't want Mikasa to become involved and get worried do you?"

Oh so he was moving away from manipulation into direct threats now. Well two could play at that game.

"No, but if I go to the medic she'll find out either way, so the only way to avoid that is to not go." Eren retorted. Truthfully he hated lying to her about his well being, but she could definitely be overbearing sometimes.

Armin's beginnings of a smirk faltered as he realized that Eren was somewhat right. If he showed up late a second day in a row it would send the already worrying Mikasa into a frenzy.

"Look I'll make a deal with you that I don't really like." Armin conceded. "I'll get her off your back, _**and **_I'll ignore whatever weird thing you've been sneaking off to do-

"I have not been sneaking off to do weird things."

"-If, and only if you head to the medic right now."

Eren stopped for a second to consider his options. If Mrs. Servott got suspicious of anything that was happening, he was fucked. She'd have to report him to whatever military higher up she could, and who knows what would happen to him then.

However if Armin and Mikasa caught on…, well to be honest, he'd probably still be equally fucked, but in the long run he'd be spending much more time with the two, leaving them more time to figure out something was wrong and investigate themselves.

If he got Armin and Mikasa fully off his back now, he wouldn't have to worry about any of that, and to do it he'd only have to spend ten minutes at the medic tent, tops.

With a sigh Eren agreed, "Fine, I'll do it."

"Finally, I don't know why-

"_**But!**_" Eren interrupted, "But, you have to completely drop the subject. No more 'Eren, I don't believe you', 'Eren, I don't think that's the full story', and no more bugging me about it after I've already explained it to you."

Armin looked at him skeptically. It wasn't exactly normal for Eren to be so adamant about hiding things, but at the moment he was much more concerned for Eren's physical wellbeing than what was happening over the past few days.

"Fine, I'll do it." Said Armin raising his hand. "Shake on it?"

"Yeah." Responded Eren as he gripped his hand, giving it a good shake.

When Eren stepped back to finally get a look at Armin's face he noticed he looked frustrated, more upset than he was letting on about the results of the deal, and for a fleeting second Eren felt really bad about what he'd just done.

"Well you better get off to the medic then, you only have about twenty minutes now." Armin said, breaking the tension.

Eren rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yeah, I guess… See you at lineup then?"

Armin gave a small smile as he responded, "Yeah, see you in a bit." And with that he headed off.

Eren watched his retreating back for a second before making a quick turn on his heel.

As much as he didn't want to head over, a deal was a deal, and Eren wasn't gonna be the one to break it.

Once he reached the medic tent and explained his situation, Mrs. Servott was surprisingly sympathetic.

"I knew somethin' was wrong when ya' walked in 'ere a couple days ago." She explained as she rooted through her supplies to grab a thermometer. "As much as ya claimed you were just tryna' skip a lil' bit, you didn't look right."

Eren huffed. Well yeah that was because his wrist still hurt like a bitch at that time! It had nothing to do with any sort of sickness, and he hadn't been sick in Walls knew how long.

Wait.

Eren stopped to think for a second. If he could heal from cuts and regenerate limbs did that mean he was immune to sickness? After all, sickness was just your body getting hurt while trying to fight off, uhhh, well he forgot the word for it-he'd have to ask Armin later-right? If his body didn't get hurt, or healed from that super fast, wouldn't it mean he wouldn't get sick at all?

He stared down at his hands for a second as he continued to contemplate. It was definitely possible. He hadn't tested any internal injuries or issues like poison or disease, Sina it hadn't even occurred to him!

If he could fight off those nasty infections, could that ability be transferred to someone else, could _any_ of his abilities be transferred to someone else!? If so that would give humanity and even better fighting chance! He could become a powerful asset, both saving people and attacking, he could lower the death rates in the Survey Corps, he could-

"Ok hun, I'm gonna need ya to open your mouth real quick."

Eren was pulled out of his thoughts to see Mrs. Servott standing in front of him, a thermometer held out expectantly.

"Oh I, umm, ok."

He opened his mouth and allowed the thermometer to be placed in, angling it upwards so he could see the little markings on the front, a big black line placed at 100.4 degrees fahrenheit.

"Just make sure to keep that under ya tongue, ok?"

"Yes ma'am, I will."

She smiled up at him. "Good. Now that's gonna take a lil' while, so I'm gonna keep filing records in the front room while it warms up. Just call me if you need anythin'"

"I understand." Eren responded, as he attempted to watch the small red bar creep upwards.

As Eren continued to wait, she gripped a large mass of paperwork and made her way to the front, totally separating the two.

He simply continued to sit, as he watched the red bar rise, and rise, slowly inching its way up the glass tube. He didn't think much of it until it started getting close to that black line, then closer, and the past it all together.

Now, Eren had almost no clue what that line meant, but at worst it was probably normal temperature, so passing it was probably not a good thing.

Even after the line had been passed, the red continued to rise, creeping ever closer to the large glass bell at the end, finally stopping around the 110 degree mark.

Eren stared at it for a second. That was...not good? Fuck, he had no idea what the average human tempature was, but it was always better to be below than higher right?

He quickly ripped the thermometer out of his mouth, staring at the reading for a second as it began to fall.

"Has the red stopped movin' upwards yet?" Mrs. Servott hollered from the other room, accompanied by the sound of moving papers.

Eren opened his mouth to respond before suddenly realizing that if he did, it would have been very obvious the thermometer had not been in his mouth.

"Mhmm." He hummed, hoping that it sounded as convincing as possible.

Papers rustled again as she responded, "Ok then, just sit tight, I'll be there in a sec."

He glanced back down at the thermometer, noticing the red bar still much too far from the line for his liking and started to fidget. Walls, he hoped it dropped below before she got back, even if he did have a high temperature he couldn't afford to miss any more training.

He waved the thermometer through the air, attempting to get the temperature to lower as he heard footsteps start to move in his direction.

Just as they rounded the corner, he stuffed the thermometer back into his mouth, hoping it looked convincing enough.

Luckily for him, Mrs. Servott didn't even look up from her papers, just held out her hand with a, "Could ya hand that to me dear?"

He shakily placed the bulbous end of the thermometer into her hand, praying to whatever would listen that it was normal enough to pass. She looked up from her papers and hummed, eyes flitting over all the different readings.

"Well you're a lil' warm, but otherwise you're good to train."

Eren felt like he could collapse into a boneless heap. Thank fuck it was fine, but that still didn't solve the issue of him having no idea what constitutes a fever, or abnormal tempature.

"Um, ma'am, what would make me not able to train?"

She smiled back at him, amused. "Why? Are ya tryn' to skieve again?"

He flushed as he realized, that yeah, that was exactly what that question made him sound like he was gonna do. "No, no, no, I was just wondering because I didn't know and m' confused about what that little black line is there for."

"Ah, s' really nothin'. Just makes it easier to see and remember at what point a person is runnin' a fever."

Eren felt his blood run cold. That black line was supposed to be a high, and he hadn't just moved past it, Walls he'd blasted past it at the same speed Hannes had moved away from the titans, but how? What was the upper limit?

"Ah, that makes sense." Eren paused, wondering how to formulate his next question, before he had an idea, "Out of curiosity, ma'am, what is the highest fever you've ever seen?"

She exhaled sharply as the mood seemed to drop a bit. Nonetheless she still answered his question with, "In ere' the highest was a 105. Poor kid cut his arm on a tree and didn't tell anyone, cause' he was scared they'd be mad. It got infected and by the time he got to me there wasn't anythin' I could do."

Eren shifted awkwardly in his seat. "Ah, I see."

"It was much worse out there after Maria though y'know, with all the crowding and such."

His small half smile fell off of his face. Yeah he definitely knew.

"Lotsa kids gettin' sick, and no meds for em'. A real little one came ta me with a temp of 107 after bein' picked up off the street."

Eren looked down at the floor. Even though it'd been less than two years since he spent time in the Wall Maria refugee camps, it felt as if it'd been eons ago. The hazy days in which people ran around the area screaming, and you couldn't take a single step without seeing some kid or another collapsed and dying.

In some ways they'd gotten lucky. They'd still had Armin's grandfather up until the mass culling, and by the time that had happened, they'd escaped the worst of the disease and filth on the streets.

That didn't mean they didn't see any of it happen though.

"It was a real horrid thing y'know?" Mrs. Servott continued as she placed the thermometer back among the mass of bandages and gauze. "S' why I'm so glad some of you youngins' are here and fightin'. Shows me we haven't lost yet."

Eren looked back up at her and gave a soft smile. "Yeah, I'll do my best."

"Good to hear hun, but if ya really wanna prove that ya better get a move on. Mornin' lineups' in five minutes."

Despite having to sprint for a solid minute in order to make it, Eren was able to slide into his normal spot relatively smoothly, save for a few odd looks from those around him.

As the commander started his normal yelling drills, Eren allowed himself to zone out for a minute, figuring if anything was really that important he could get Armin to fill him in mind wandered to the bits of information the medic had given him before launching him back into memory lane.

So his average temperature definitely wasn't normal then. He'd figured as much, considering he'd have to be at least somewhat warmer internally in order to produce steam from cuts (and considering the fact that those who've had contact with titans claim that they're extremely hot), but he'd never considered exactly how warm that would be.

Ten to eleven degrees above normal human temperature was far too much of a discrepancy for him to be comfortable with. He'd have to be much more careful when it came to contact and medical procedure than he'd initially planned.

He heard the commander's voice begin to get slightly quieter, signifying that lineup was almost over, and began to zone back in, his arms aching from holding a salute for so long.

As the group was dismissed to breakfast, Eren trotted over to both Armin and Mikasa, who were waiting for him expectantly.

"Eren why were you late again?" Mikasa asked him as soon as he stepped into hearing range.

He knew that it was meant to sound much more stern than it actually had, coming off as more worried than anything.

"Hey, I wasn't late today!" Eren retorted, "I've just been having a couple of issues with my straps lately. I think Jean or someone else has been shortening them while I sleep."

Mikasa stared at him passively, opening her mouth to respond until Armin snorted.

"Yeah, sure someone's been messing with them. That person is yourself who decided that properly hanging up your straps isn't necessary."

Eren flushed. While he was glad that Armin was holding up his end of the deal and defending him, did he have to bring that up? He'd just been too tired lately to do it properly.

She hummed thoughtfully and placed a hand on her chin. "That does sound like something you'd do."

Eren whipped around to face her and defended himself, claiming, "That was only one or two times! I swear someone is messing with me!"

"Actually-"

"Forget it!" Yelled Eren, throwing his hands into the air, "If ya'll wanna gossip and miss breakfast that's fine by me, but I'm gonna go eat."

Mikasa and Armin watched as he stomped off towards the dining hall, obviously attempting to seem angry, but coming off as simply flustered.

Mikasa was the first to break the silence as she asked, "Is there really an issue with his straps or is he lying again?"

He simply shrugged and put his hands behind his back to hide his fidgeting, a gesture not missed by Mikasa. "He really has been forgetting to put his straps up properly and fighting with them for the past few days."

"Hmm."

"I think he's just been really tired, but I don't know from what. Maybe one of those seasonal colds?"

The two stood in silence for a minute as neither knew how to respond. Armin knew she didn't believe a word of what he'd said, but he'd already made a deal with Eren, one he couldn't afford to break now.

But _Sina_, he'd been so sure that it was some kind of sickness causing Eren's odd behaviour for the past couple days. That was the only reason he'd made the bet in the first place, and now that Eren had been cleared by the medic, he was back to square one.

"Y'know you guys can tell me about whatever's going on right?" Asked Mikasa, pulling her scarf up closer to her face and beginning to fidget with it, "If something's happening m' more than willing to help out."

Armin gave a small smile before responding, with a "Yeah." As much as he wished he could fill her in one what Eren had been doing, to be honest at this point he had no clue.

Oblivious to Armin and Mikasa's torment, Eren continued on with his testing as if nothing had ever happened, and it had always been a normal part of his life.

Now that they were both off of his back, and Armin was defending him, he had much more time to himself, meaning much more time to test whatever he pleased.

While Eren knew that the amount of time he'd spent in the woods over the past two weeks was a little ridiculous-Jean had even made a comment about Eren suddenly needing much more private alone time, but a swift left hook had shut him up-he'd found out much more than he would have ever been able to before.

At first he'd simply judged how long it took for injuries to close based on sight, but after stealing both a pocket watch and a journal his records had become much more accurate.

For starters he found that a shallow gash on his forearm that would normally take a week or so to heal completely sealed shut in about a minute, leaving not even a scar behind. A larger gash would take quite a bit longer, often healing around the four to five minute mark, depending on where the cut was placed. The further from his heart, the longer it took to heal.

He'd even asked Armin as much as he dared about the topic-Walls, that'd been an awkward conversation-and he'd claimed that stuff closer to your heart got better blood flow, so maybe that was it.

Speaking of blood flow, over the past week Eren had found what was probably his least favorite part of his newfound abilities, the residue it left behind.

While smaller injuries clotted and stopped bleeding within seconds, larger ones did not, giving ample time for blood to drip all over the forest floor, as well as his clothes.

He'd been forced to abandon his original clearing in favor of one that was much more hidden, as he didn't need anyone finding a giant puddle of blood on the ground and assuming the worst. Originally he'd thought that his blood would probably evaporate after being outside of his body for too long, just like a titans', but of course the universe couldn't make it that fucking easy could it?

He'd already had to scrap one pair of pants due to the massive stains that he had no wait of explaining, and thank Walls Armin had always been so insistent on him having an extra pair.

Other than that though, his testing had been relatively mundane. He'd eaten the stem and flowers of a plant with numerous white, bell shaped flowers, that Sasha had pointed out was poisonous long ago, but had really felt nothing other than a stomach ache. Whether that was simply the plant's effect, or if his powers truly did help, he wasn't entirely sure.

He'd also tested with small scrapes and bruises, smacking his hands into trees and timing how long they took to heal. Most of the time he could barely get the pocket watch out to check them time before all injuries were gone though.

Oddly enough, after ten or so failed tests, his hands felt heavier, like they were being weighed down at the knuckle. He'd asked Armin what that could mean, and while Armin had given him a weird look, he'd responded with, "It's micro fractures."

"Huh?" Eren had asked, "Micro whats?"

"Micro fractures. A fracture is when you break your bone or chip off a piece."

"So my hands feel heavier because I'm...breaking them?" Eren continued with an odd look, finally getting Armin to look up from his book.

"Well, yes, but not exactly." he grabbed Eren's hand as he guided it to an exposed beam. "When you hit stuff like this, your knuckles kinda um, break a bit?"

Eren looked down at where his knuckles were touching the wood and asked, "Wouldn't that hurt?"

"It's small enough and not deep enough that it doesn't really hurt, and when it heals it comes back stronger I think. I'm not really sure how it works to be honest."

"So it like, builds up more bone? Because I'm breaking bone?"

"Basically." Responded Armin as he looked back at Eren's knuckles. "Normally people don't really notice though, because it heals slow enough that you get used to it by the time it's done."

Eren's eyes flit up to a spot above Armin as he nervously responded, "Ok, wow that's really cool y'know, s' cool that you know that."

Armin face scrunched up in confusion as he looked back at Eren.

"What are you planning to do?"

"Me, planning to do something? No, why would I be?"

"Eren, when are you not planning to do something?"

"Um, pretty much all the time? I don't really plan to do much except join the Survey Corps and kill all the titans."

Armin huffed as he turned back to his book, "Actually you may be right, I'm not sure you ever think, you just do."

Although his testing was outside of what a normal person would do to themselves, Eren had come to the conclusion that he was unfortunately not a normal person, and outside of the minor amputation he'd done earlier, he hadn't done anything too major.

Nothing like the injuries the survey corps faced daily.

Which brought him to his current predicament. He knew that he could regrow bone and limbs and such, but what good would that do him if he bled out before anything could regenerate? It's not really that helpful to be able to get his arms and legs back if he's dead.

Although it _would _make for a prettier looking corpse.

Either way, he couldn't exactly cut off his arm to check, as he probably didn't have the mental will power or the leverage, so there was really only one way.

He knew that there was a major artery in his neck, and he could feel his pulse through it due to the amount of blood moving. From what he knew so far, the more blood flow that an injury could get, the faster it could heal, so if he just put a small cut in there…

He'd been prepping for a whole week in order to make sure that this went off without a hitch, as even the slightest mistake could lead to some pretty intense blood loss, or even worse, him being discovered.

Although he'd long since abandoned the whole 'hiding a knife in his boot' in favor of simply burying one in his testing area, Eren had had to steal much _much_ more for his plan.

Towels, to clean up or apply pressure, an extra set of clothes, a blanket that he'd be using as a tarp, and possibly the hardest item to obtain, a small pocket mirror. With these he _should _be able to make the test go off without a hitch, right?

Which is why Eren Jaeger found himself frustrated and alone, standing without shoes or shirt, in between trees with a letter opener to his neck.

He'd gone over the scenario hundreds and hundreds of times. All he had to do was make a small cut in the artery right below his jaw, just enough to create tons of blood flow, then see how fast it heals. The pocket watch was set on a low hanging branch near him in order to provide a timeline of events, as well as warn him when he should start applying pressure if the wound hadn't healed yet.

He figured that if it was still bleeding after two minutes, he'd have to intervene.

Eren had thought of every way this could go wrong, and accounted for it five ways from Sunday so he just had to stop being such _a fucking coward and __**do it.**_

Of course that was easier said than done, as Eren nervously watched his hand shake as the knife was placed against his skin. Not enough to cut, but just enough so that he could feel the bite of metal.

He could feel his heart rate increase as every instinct he had screamed '_What the __**fuck are you doing!'**_, but he'd have to try this at some point, and Walls, he already had everything here. To attempt to move it for another time would honestly be more difficult than simply destroying some of it, as he planned to do.

Yet as he just kept staring down at the mirror, eyes catching the glint of metal oh so close to his neck.

He could do this. He _**could**_ _do this_. He'd seen broken bones all but disappear, bruises that faded within seconds, and cuts sometimes close even faster, and what was this but a bit of a more dangerous cut?

Gulping nervously, careful not to have the letter opener cut anything before he was ready, Eren backed into a tree, bracing himself against it in order to gain better leverage, as he began to slice.

The flesh parted cleanly underneath the sharp blade, as the telltale burn of exposed meat and tissue began to take place, yet something was wrong.

Blood began to slowly trickle down his neck and over his hand, but it was slow, pooling into thick globs just above his collarbone as the wound began to hiss and knit itself back together.

Eren tilted his head back to get a view of as it continued to close. He could see the separation of skin and tissue, but that's really all it was. A superficial wound that bled slowly and closed easily; it's placement concerning for someone who would have to wait a week or so for it to heal, but ultimately inconsequential.

Fuck, he hadn't cut deep enough.

While he'd known this was possible, and was by far preferable to cutting too deep, it was still frustrating. In order to get the best results possible he'd have to wait around a minute to try again, as the blood continued to dry on his body, creating a _very_ uncomfortable film.

And _Sina_, it would be awkward if someone found him with his chest covered in blood, no wounds in sight, and a letter opener in his hand.

He let out a small breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding as he lowered the mirror and blade for a minute.

He knew he could do it. That simple cut, right over the artery was already healing nicely, the edges becoming fresh pink skin. There was no way that something like a small nick would take _that_ long to heal.

Plus even if it did take a little longer, it would just be a small cut. Enough to lose a fair amount of blood rapidly.

He lifted the mirror back up as he checked the wound once more, only to be greeted with fresh skin, rather than any type of laceration.

Good.

That was good.

It seemed he was at least somewhat right with his blood theory, as that had healed around a minute or so faster than normal, meaning that his arteries would probably heal really really fast as well.

Right?

Steeling himself one more, he carefully placed the blade over his previous cut, his fingers brushing the skin, only to find a strong pulse pumping right under his fingertips.

A pulse that was about to be brutally disrupted.

Once more he let the metal bite into his flesh, applying slightly more pressure than last time, keeping the blade steady.

He continued to drag it slowly through his flesh, watching as blood began to fall in rivulets, once more pooling around his collarbone as it fell faster and faster and-

A crunch of leaves from directly beside him alerted him to someone, or _somethings' _presence as his arm jerked, the careful precision of the blade lost as it carved sideways and down, _down_ into his throat.

Eren's head felt fuzzy for a moment as he watched his neck spit blood down his chest and across his mirror, as if he'd just been an outsider looking in, as if he'd had nothing to do with the situation before what he'd done hit him.

The knife was quickly ripped out, a stream of blood following it, smacking the tarp with a wet sound, and _holy shit what had he done_ _**what had he done!?**_

He looked down to see a puddle of blood falling beneath him, growing bigger and bigger by the second as more continued to join it, and that was wayyyy more of his blood than Eren was comfortable with seeing outside of his body.

He staggered back a few steps, the thick stream following him, forming new puddles in his wake as he struggled to lift the mirror back up.

It definitely hadn't been two minutes, but this was far too much blood. Even though he was certain the healing process should have started by now, he needed to see how far along it was, as if it wasn't close to closing yet he'd have to start applying pressure.

Through blurring vision he angled the mirror to his neck and saw-

Nothing.

Nothing but blood, blood, and more blood, now gushing freely from the large gouge in his neck. No steam.

Without even the slightest attempt to heal itself Eren's body simply kept pushing out more and more of his remaining lifesource as he began to panic.

He took a deep break in an attempt to get some fresh air, only to choke on fluid and fall to his knees, adding more blood and phlegm to the pool.

Fuck he needed the towels.

He needed to apply pressure, as it was his only hope if he wanted to staunch the bleeding and give himself a chance, but they were so far away and his vision just kept blurring.

His arms shot out in front of him, as he attempted to balance under whatever force was pushing on him, shoving him to the ground as his arms and legs gave out, forcing him to fall in the ever increasing pool of blood, which now stained his face and hair a bright red.

Fuck he was going to die here wasn't he? Not by titan jaws, not by heroically sacrificing himself to save someone else, but by his own hands, in a stupid attempt to test his weird regeneration or whatever it was.

It seemed like Jean's nickname suicidal bastard had been spot on.

Eren attempted to give a weak laugh, but it only came out as a soft gurgle as more fluid made its way into his lungs.

Walls, he didn't want to die here, _not like this_. Not when he hasn't done anything with his life, not when he hasn't gotten his revenge.

He'd never get to see Mikasa or Armin again, and they'd be crushed, crushed trying to figure out what happened, probably blaming themselves for not seeing the signs.

He'd never get to train with Annie again, or share stories of his hometown with Reiner or Bertholdt, or watch Sasha go batshit for breadcrumbs, or be a part of Connie's numerous schemes, or argue with Jean, or do anything he wanted to do.

He'd die alone, in these stupid fucking woods, with nothing but trees and the wind to keep him company.

_Walls_, he didn't want to die. He didn't want to die, Eren thought as tears pooled in his eyes and flowed down his cheeks.

His vision was beginning to fade as sleep pulled at his eyes, inviting him to a cold embrace as his body began to grow numb.

Not like this.

He didn't want it to end like this.

It couldn't end like this.

He wanted to see the outside world, what's beyond these walls, the Ocean.

He wanted to see Shiganshina again.

He wanted to say goodbye.

_He wanted to live._

_**He wanted to LIVE!**_


	5. Please Just Tell Your Friends the Truth

When Eren woke up again everything was a little weird.

He couldn't remember where he was or what he was doing, but he felt a solid pressure against the back of his head and around his throat, stemming from his nape.

Wherever he was it was sweltering though. Something weighed down his eyelids, disallowing him from opening them as he continued to sit in the heat.

It reminded him of the time it'd rained during the summer months, the temperature never dropping enough for the rain to feel refreshing as it soaked his family's wood cabin, while inside the air would always feel sticky, hot and damp, with no way to escape.

He'd heard at some point the nobles had long since solved the problem of humidity during the rainy season, but for the longest time he'd thought it a myth. After all, how does one change the weather?

Although the air felt sticky and hot against his face, he had no trouble breathing, as he'd had during the warm rainy season, nor was he sweating. It actually felt...pleasant. As if he were floating and nothing could harm him.

Wishing to see what was creating such paradise he pushed against the weight on his tired eyelids and opened them a crack only to see...meat?

Sleep left his body as his eyes shot open, now noticing whatever was attached to his cheeks and the weird wall of tissue in front of him.

Eren's mind immediately assumed the worst as he screamed, his arms and legs rendered immobile as they were fused to this thing, this disgusting mash of flesh and blood that he could see faintly pulsing in time with his heartbeat.

He began to struggle, kicking and thrashing as he attempted to free his arms, his legs, Walls, anything to get him out of this fleshy hell.

He continued to thrash until he ripped his head back, and finally, finally there was a tearing sound as the flesh on his cheeks and arms began to pull away, and fuck it hurt, why did it hurt?

Now with his head outside of the cavity it had previously been placed in, he could see the skin of the large creature, pale and unwieldy, seeming to be some sort of back and shoulder muscle. He quickly wiggled his arms and legs out of their fleshy prison as he fell back onto his butt, muscular tendrils still attached to his cheek.

He stared in both awe and terror at the monstrosity before him, seeming to be an incomplete recreation of a human's upper torso, complete with two large hands wrapped around where the throat would be, as the previous events hit him.

He'd been dying.

He'd been dying. He felt it too. The energy leaving his body as it became colder and colder as he lost all ability to move. His eyes closing on their own, kinda like when you hit your head too hard and somebody tells you to stay awake, but you just can't, and fuck he should have been dead.

He should be dead.

Eren rubbed at his throat, feeling nothing, not even a raised mass of skin where the freshly healed should have been as the monstrosity started to hiss.

A large blast of steam smacked him in the face, rustling both his hair and clothes as the mass seemed to split apart in front of him, the two arms falling apart to the forest floor.

He simply stared for a second, watching as it seemed to melt to the ground, muscles and sinew falling off the bone like limp noodles as they shriveled up and disappeared. Thick vertebrae and ribs still stood proud in front of him, however they to were steaming away, leaving wisps of steam to float upwards, descending the treetops in a curling motion.

His heart beat in his ears as he tried to will himself to get up, to get away from this horrid scene. It was obviously a titan, a dead one at that, but why only part? And why was it around him? Why was he alive for that matter?

After watching his shaky breath form soft clouds as he continued to exhale for a minute, he shifted his arms to his front, using them to rock forward on his feet. He stood to his full height as he walked around the still disintegrating mass with wobbling legs, only to see the tarp.

The bloodstained tarp, with more than he'd ever seen. Even after he'd killed those two men in the cabin, he didn't remember seeing this much blood.

So that wasn't a dream then.

Although the evidence of his actions was clear as day on the forest floor, oddly enough the blood that had been there previously was gone from his torso and, thank Walls, his pants as well. From where he was standing he could see a glint from his blade and the mirror as well-they must've gotten dropped in his attempt to grab the towels- and while both were soaked in blood, they seemed no worse for wear.

Bringing a hand up to his neck, he couldn't feel any pitting or scarring from the wound, and the skin didn't feel sensitive either, but he had to check. If it was at all noticeable when he went back to the camp, it'd definitely raise some questions.

Questions he probably wouldn't be able to answer.

The mirror was filthy, having attracted numerous bugs and dirt in his absence, but he ignored it in favor of licking his thumb and rubbing it in a circle around the mirror to at least make something visible.

While it wasn't the clearest reflection, he couldn't see any discoloration around his throat, meaning that any issues could easily be explained away.

Good, that was good.

No visible issues meant no questions, and no questions meant nobody had to find out.

He continued to angle the mirror around, in order to see more of the side of his neck, until something caught his eye.

Something was on the lower part of his cheek, leading upwards towards his eye.

He moved the mirror upwards, until he could see the full extent of whatever was there, only to see the marks stop slightly below his eye.

They seemed to start on the bottom of his eyelid, following the curve of his cheekbones downward, and when he brought his fingers up to wipe them off, he'd found they weren't marks at all, but rather indents.

Ok, that was more than a little odd.

He kept running his fingers over them, marveling in how natural they felt, as if they had always been there, yet as he stared at the mirror they looked alien. Totally wrong.

They seemed to be slowly shrinking, the pointed end moving further and further up his cheek as the skin pulled itself together. It looked similar to way cuts healed on him, just without the exposed tissue and blood, so it was obvious that's not what they were.

But what could they be?

Nothing he could think of made indents like that-not even when he fell asleep on a pile of vines that one time-they were far too perfect, each running parallel to each other, and nothing had really been on his cheek in recent memory.

Except for-

Eren turned back to look at the steaming mass, now no taller than the sole of his boots as he thought about what had happened.

He hadn't just been in the titan. He hadn't opened his eyes to a large cavity. He hadn't been able to move once he woke up.

He had been fused with the titan, his hands and feet fully enveloped, with thick meaty tendrils connecting to his face. He'd had to rip them to shreds just to escape, and when he did…

When he did the titan carcass had started to disintegrate.

Not before. It couldn't have been before, as right after he fell it steamed like a dam had burst.

It had steamed the way veterans said titans did after the nape was cut.

The more Eren thought about it, the less and less the situation made sense. How the fuck did a whole ass titan get in here, inside the walls? How did he not notice it before? How did no one notice it before? And why, why would it have saved him?

Walls, that was really the only explanation for how he would have lived, as he would've been more than half dead by the time something stumbled upon him. An easy picking for a titan.

Yet it simply made no sense! Titans were thoughtless killing machines! For one to appear out of nowhere and just...envelope him, would be fucking weird at best, and impossible at worst.

And yet, something like that must have happened! There was no explanation otherwise!

Any titans attempting to get over the walls would be dead within seconds due to the garrison stationed there and there was no way it could've slipped anywhere near the training camps without being eviscerated by the military police nearby.

But it had, and there had been something connecting to his arms, legs, face and nape, weighing down on him, hot and heavy and unmistakably flesh and-

Wait.

His nape.

Eren angled his head downwards as he brought a hand to hover over the back of his neck.

The nape was the weak spot in titans right? The sort of control center?

And that had been pretty heavily connected to the titan hadn't it?

That had been the source hadn't it?

He dropped his hand as he simply continued to stand at the ground. The titan coming from him made sense, fuck it was the only scenario that made sense.

He'd thought about it before-the possibility that he truly was a titan. Somehow a ten meter tall beast stuck in a fucked up fourteen year old's body, but he'd thought it preposterous at the time.

Sure his abilities were odd and titan-like, but throwing them on a human somehow made more sense than a person who could suddenly become ten times bigger.

Or vice versa.

Walls, what if it was the opposite?

What if he truly was one of those mindless beasts, having caused thousands to die, forcing humanity back into this fucking prison they were forced to call a sanctuary for no reason other than unending hunger?

Would that mean that everything he knew up until now was fake? All those memories of Mikasa and Armin when they were kids, all that he remembered about his mom…

Eren stayed like that, frozen for a minute as he ran over all the possibilities in his head before finally deciding, no.

No, that couldn't be it.

If he was a titan turned man, he'd have to assume that humans would have been the ones to do it-seeing as no accounts of titans randomly turning into people existed-and

if that was the case, why the hell wasn't it being used everywhere? Technology like that would absolutely decimate the titan population, so it'd be used non-stop.

His shoulders dropped with a tension he hadn't realized was there when he realized this.

He may be a freak that might be able to turn into a titan, but at least he was at his very core, human.

At least he could control himself.

Well, mostly.

Eren stretched his hands upwards, blocking some of the dying light that came through the tops of the trees as he flexed them.

If he could figure out the exact trigger, he'd be able to create these fleshy carcasses on command, basically making a biological shield. He could do something other than throw himself in the way to protect people.

And the offensive possibilities, oh all the ways he could attack! If he could move the arms he'd be able to easily take out their legs! If he could throw things with that force, it'd be sure to cripple a ton of titans for at least a little while!

And if he could become a full titan…

A smile pulled across his face as his eyes widened.

If he could become a full titan, killing them all would be child's play.

After all, what would a lumbering beast have against something it's size, but with intelligence?

As much as Eren believed that nobody had taken notice of, or at least cared about his disappearance, many definitely had, and while some were concerned for his well being, three in particular were much less concerned than they were suspicious.

So, they decided to gather on their free day, taking their normal seats toward the back of the dining hall, as they discussed the current enigma that was Eren Jaeger.

"To be honest, I really don't think there's that much up with him." Reiner stated as Annie squinted at him. "Yeah his behavior has been suspicious, but like, you gotta give a guy his private time y'know?"

Bertholdt put his head in his hands as Annie continued to stare at him, finally sighing and asking, "So you think there's nothing odd with the fact that he disappears for hours on end, never telling anybody what he's doing? With the fact that he always comes back exhausted? With the fact that for a while he was keeping a random knife in his boot? With the fact that he always came back absolutely reeking of blood?"

Reiner flinched as he scooted back under her intense stare. "Well, no, I think it's weird but-"

"But what?" Annie interrupted, "What makes you think there's nothing wrong?"

"I just...well, he's not exactly the pinnacle of mental health, y'know. I think he might be, well….uhm."

"You think he's hurting himself?"

He cringed at the blunt way she had worded it but responded, "Yeah.."

Annine sighed as she relaxed back into her seat. "That's what I thought for a while to, but there's something wrong with that theory."

She paused for a second to blow strands of hair away from her forehead before continuing with, "He always rolls up his sleeves to eat, and his arms are always clean, so that's out of the picture, and over the past week whenever I fight with him, I've been looking, god, searching for anything that would lead onto that, and yet nothing."

"Well, he could just be really good at hiding it?" Bertholdt added, "I mean, he uh, probably would have to be with Mikasa, and uh Armin hovering around."

"Have you seen that boy though? He's about as good at hiding things as the merchants here are at hiding their corruption." She turned to Reiner as she added, "Plus, you remember the wrist incident, don't you?"

Reiner exhaled sharply through his teeth. Yeah, he remembered it, but he'd been attempting to give Eren as much benefit of the doubt as he dared. Though he didn't want to admit it, Eren's determination and the way he interacted with the other cadets was...endearing, in it's own sort of fucked up way. Kinda like when a child says they're gonna beat you up because you won't buy any pears for them.

"Well maybe it really was bruised and not sprained."

"Even if that was the case, where was the bruise? Last I checked normal people don't heal from bruises in a matter of hours."

"Fuck, ok, I don't know?" Reiner spat "We don't really have any proof that Eren is what we're looking for, and I just don't want to grab the wrong person."

The trio sat in silence as they mulled over Reiner's words. Unfortunately, he was right. If they grabbed Eren and bolted now, there was still a large chance that they wouldn't be getting the coordinate, and even if they did, they still had no idea about how much Eren could know about his possible abilities.

If he was the coordinate he could either know literally nothing, or be able to bring them all to their knees in seconds.

"I, um, still think it's uh, kinda odd that Mikasa is so strong." Bertholdt said, breaking the silence.

Annie shook her head as she responded, "But we've seen her get injured, and it looks like she gets fixed up in a normal amount of time."

"She might be able to control her healing like you?" Reiner suggested, "I mean, it's not impossible."

"I don't know." She responded, hands coming up to fidget with her hair again. "I just can't shake the feeling there's something wrong with that boy."

"Maybe it's none of the people here! Maybe it's some random person that's, uhmm, hiding underground!"

The other two turned to look at Bertholdt, each wearing an expression of confusion.

"What? It's not like it's impossible!" He squeaked, shrinking back and attempting to make himself smaller under the force of their stares, which wasn't all that effective considering he was over six feet tall.

"Y'know what, this is stupid." Reiner stated, "If we wanna find something out, we're gonna have to basically stalk Eren, or Mikasa, or whoever for a while."

"So why not start now?"

"What!?" Exclaimed Bertholdt and Reiner in usion.

"You saw him earlier today." Annie said, flicking her head back towards the front doors of the mess hall, "He left for the forest right after breakfast and he's still not back yet."

"So we're just gonna...walk around the forest or something until we find him?"

"Basically."

Reiner stared at her in disbelief before finally conceding. "Fine, it's not like I have anything better to do today anyway."

"Then let's head out."

"This was a terrible fucking idea, Annie."

"Ok, Reiner if you've got a better idea, I'd like to hear it!"

The trio had been stomping through dead leaves and twigs for the better part of an hour, leaving breaks on the highest branches they could to mark their way so that they didn't get lost.

That didn't stop them from walking back into their own path though.

"I think we should uh, just accept that we're, um, not going to find him, and head back." Bertholdt offered as he anxiously looked back at the pseudo path the branches had created.

"Yeah, and maybe he's already headed back." Reiner added. "We should just give up and go back ourselves."

"Shut up, we'll just be out here for a little longer." Annie spat, as she rounded a tree walking straight ahead into-

Into Eren, sitting slack-jawed in front of a river, running a large sheet through it.

He also didn't have a shirt on. Or shoes.

They four stared at each other for a moment, none willing to make the first move until Eren flushed and quickly stammered "I can explain!"

"Y'know what?" Annie stated as she spun on her heel, "I really don't want to know to be honest."

"Nonononono, it's not anything bad I promise!" Eren cried as he quickly yanked the sheet out of the water, "I just got dirt and mud and stuff on my clothes and this sheet and had to wash them off y'see?"

Annie still refused to turn around, instead electing to start the trek back to the main camp before Reiner stopped her.

"Got them dirty doing what? And why did you need a sheet for it?"

"Well, umm," Eren floundered. Fuck he hadn't thought of an excuse in advance, he hadn't thought that anyone would find him at all! Quick, think fast, think fast! "I was looking for herbs and stuff and collecting them with the sheet."

Great Eren, they're totally gonna believe that.

Reiner's face scrunched up in confusion, "Herbs? Why would you want to grab some plants, man?"

"Well, my dad was a doctor, and he uh taught me how to use em' for a lot of stuff."

While it technically wasn't a lie, it would imply that Eren had actually listened when his dad started talking, rather than immediately shoving anything he had said was edible into his mouth.

Good times.

"Stuff?" Annie asked, crossing her arms, "What do you mean by stuff?"

"Well, um mint and sage are good for making stuff, uh not be infected? And thyme just kinda tastes good so…" Eren responded, trailing off as he realized, that yeah, that was the full extent of what he remembered his dad telling him before he disappeared.

Where had he gone anyway?

He'd traveled into the inner walls just hours before the fall of Wall Maria, so there was no why he'd died there, but then why hadn't he tried to make contact? Why hadn't he heard anything about his dad since the fall?

Walls, Eren hadn't even thought about him.

"-en, hey Eren!"

He was pulled out of his thoughts as Reiner shook his shoulder roughly.

"Dude, are you ok?" Reiner asked, a concerned look briefly passing though his face, before it was replaced with confusion, "You've been spacing out a lot recently. Something on your mind?"

"Oh, ah, no. I've just been thinking a lot."

"Eren? Thinking? Sounds fake, but ok."

"Oh shut up." Eren responded rolling his eyes.

Truthfully he was glad that Reiner was so quick to make a joke out of the situation, as he really didn't have the knowledge to hold up under further questioning.

An idea popped into Eren's head as he jolted straight and whipped around to meet the trio, asking "So why are you guys out here?"

Bertholdt started to sweat as he opened his mouth to respond, only to be cut off by Annie quickly saying, "Well, technically we're here on Mikasa's behalf."

"Why didn't she just come out here herself?" Eren asked, "It's really odd that she'd send you guys, or really anyone rather than just going herself."

"The thing is, she didn't actually send us. She's been whining all day-"

"She's just concerned, no need to be rude."

"-and Armin kept holding her back, but we got so sick of it, we decided to head out and look if only to shut her up."

Eren continued to stare at the three, brows furrowed. Yes, he was sure Mikasa would be worrying, but he'd already told her exactly how long he planned to be out 'practicing with 3DMG', so it should be fine unless..

"Hey um, do you guys happen to know what time it is?"

Both Annie and Reiner shook their heads, but Bertholdt put a hand on his chin and said, "I know it was, um, around 16:30 when we left, but we uh, kinda got a little lost, so it's maybe a bit past 17:00?"

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

He'd planned to be back at fifteen hundred hours, and should have had more than enough time to do so.

Walls, how long had he spent passed out, trapped within that fleshy carcass?

"Damn, I really gotta get back then." Eren responded, hoping that his panic wasn't as apparent as it felt.

"Hm, yeah, probably." Annie responded, "You want us to lead you back, or should we just head back on our own?"

"I think I'll be good on my own."

"Y'sure? You can even be the one to lead the group if you want."

"You guys have no idea how to get back, do you?"

"Um, maybe."

After the trek back to camp, which was thankfully much shorter due to Eren's guidance, they were greeted by Mikasa and Armin, who both looked like they were about to head out themselves.

"Oh thank walls, Eren where the hell have you been?" Armin questioned.

"Exactly where I told you. I was out in the woods practicing with my gear and grabbing some herbs."

"Ok, first off, no you didn't say the second part about grabbing herbs, and second, why are you back so late! You had both me and Mikasa worried."

Eren shrunk back a bit as Armin continued to call him out. It wasn't as if he meant to worry them. He should have had more than enough time to test what he needed and get back, but of course today had to be the day to learn something new about himself.

Eren sighed as he responded, "Yeah, I know, I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't going to cut it this time Eren." Mikasa responded, glaring at him. "What the fuck were you doing?"

"I told you, I was just training and grabbing some thyme and stuff!"

"For six hours!? I'm sorry but I'm not gonna believe that."

"Well, it's the truth regardless of if you want to believe it or not."

"Really? Then how did you carry them? Why don't you have any with you right now?"

Eren blanked. Fuck, he really had no way to prove it did he? Fuck, he should have at least picked up a plant or two along the walk back.

"Uh, well I don't wanna interrupt you guys, but to be fair we did find Eren washing dirt and something out of a big sheet." Reiner piped up, and Eren was so relieved he could kiss him.

"Yeah!" Eren exclaimed, "I used a spare sheet like a bag and collected some!"

This time it was Armin who stared at him skeptically. "So you collected enough that you something to carry your herbs in, but now you don't have any?"

"Well, I set it down for a second and some fatass squirrel or something took everything that I had, so I just decided to give up."

"Squirrels don't eat thyme."

"Walls, Armin I don't know if it was a squirrel, but I set it down for a second, turned around, and then poof! They were gone." Eren retorted, waving his hands around for emphasis.

Both Armin and Mikasa just continued to stare at him in disbelief, looking him over to find a way to disprove him.

The three stood in awkward silence for a minute as Eren began to sweat under the careful scrutiny, Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie, having chosen moments prior to make their escape.

It was Armin who decided to be the first to break the silence with a sigh. "Eren, I will admit I don't have anything to disprove that you're telling the truth, however that doesn't mean-"

"Is that blood on your pants?"

Eren looked down to a spot just below the cuff of his boots, and shit, yeah that was a rather large blood stain. He hadn't noticed it as it was mostly hidden by his boots, but if he shifted just right it was visible.

"Uhhhhhh."

"Eren you better tell the fucking truth right now." Mikasa stated, glaring at him. He could tell she was absolutely done with him at the moment.

"I am!" He cried, "That was there before I left!"

"It definitely was not, Eren." Armin replied coldly. "I know I said I wouldn't question you anymore, but this is too much. You've been sneaking off doing walls knows what, and always come back late."

"Woah, hold up. What do you mean 'I know I said I wouldn't question you anymore?" Mikasa asked, her anger beginning to shift from Eren to Armin.

"Well, I just... I made a deal with him ok?"

"A deal to what? Lie to my face!?"

Armin shrunk back. He'd already felt horrible for even the smallest of fibs he'd had to tell to her, but to hear it said in plain words…

"I-well-yes and no-"

"This isn't an in between answer situation Armin. You either made a deal that both of you would lie to me, or you didn't."

"I did but-"

"So for how long. For how long did you two try to act like I can't help you!" Cried Mikasa as tears began to pool in her eyes.

The two boys looked down at the ground, ashamed at what they'd done.

"It's not that I don't think you can, but I just needed Eren to do something, and I thought that would solve everything, but it didn't and I didn't want to hurt you, or lie, but I was just so sure and I thought I was right but I wasn't." Armin rambled as tears came to his eyes as well.

Walls, he was just so, so, frustrated!

He was almost never wrong, and it's not like he'd made that bet without thinking of the consequences, but he'd been sure he wouldn't have to face them.

Now that his actions were coming back to hit him, he regretted everything.

And it was Eren's fault.

He'd been lying, doing something behind their backs that he didn't want them to know about.

Something that he felt entitled to keep a secret for whatever reason, and that was the issue.

As Armin's rage continued to boil, he lifted his head and hissed "So Eren, are you going to tell us what you think is so important to keep secret that you'd rather lie and blackmail me into playing along with you as well-"

While Mikasa was still next to him, Eren was gone, nowhere to be found.

"Ah." he said, his anger deflating, leaving him with nothing but the feeling of emptiness. He looked over at Mikasa, only to see her looking at the ground as well, her scarf pulled up the the bottoms of her eyes.

He had an awful suspicion that she was crying.

"Hey.." He asked her softly, nudging her shoulder with his fist. She only shrunk further away from him and into her scarf, now almost the same height as him from how much she was hunched over.

"Y'know I didn't mean to upset you right?" He asked. "I just wanted Eren to go to the medic tent and get checked out, and that was the only way to get him to go.

She just shook her head.

"Ok, I know I was wrong. I took the easy way out rather than trusting you to help me. I'm sorry."

Mikasa turned away from him as she made a wiping motion at her face. "You guys just...You never tell me anything. And I'm worried."

"I know."

"I'm worried that one day something's gonna happen that I could've been there to help with, but you guys left me out of. I'm worried that you guys are gonna get hurt."

"I'm sorry."

"I just…" She trailed off, as she began to lower her scarf. "Just… don't lie to me again ok? If something's going on tell me. Don't act like I'm not here."

Armin looked to the side. That was really what'd he done, wasn't it? He'd sacrificed actual help for the quick results he'd so desperately wanted.

Fuck, he'd really been an asshole, hadn't he?

"I won't, or we won't for that matter. I'll make Eren agree even if I have to take the place of the nonexistent person subtly tightening his gear's straps."

Although it didn't totally lighten the mood, he could hear her soft chuckle hidden beneath the thick fabric of the scarf, so he counted it as a win.

Meanwhile, Eren's mood was not lightened.

"Fucking Armin, he fucking promised that piece of shit!"

While he knew deep down that he wasn't actually mad at Armin at all, he was certainly upset and ashamed after seeing Mikasa's reaction, and well Eren wasn't all that great at dealing with any touchy-feely emotions he felt.

So he defaulted to the one thing he knew best.

Anger.

"Fucking hell, why the fuck would he-what the fuck-" Eren screamed as he drove his fists into the surrounding trees. He could feel his knuckles splitting open as blood splattered across his fingers and onto the surrounding trees, but couldn't bring himself to care.

He needed to blow off some steam, both metaphorically and literally.

Eren continued to slam into any tree he could find, escalating as he threw his forearm into the bark of a particularly loud tree, relishing in the soft crunch it made as it connected.

Whether the sound was from his arm or the bark, he didn't care. Fuck it would heal anyway, so who gave a shit.

He lifted up his left leg, pulling it up past his waist as he angrily kicked the same tree, finally falling back on his ass and gripping his foot, because yeah that had probably broken something.

He sat there for a second, allowing his heavy breaths to return to normal as the wisps of steam from his knuckles moved upwards and continued to fade into the cool night air.

From where he sat, the image was almost peaceful.

"Are you finished yet, or do I have to watch you that poor tree a few more times?" Came a cool voice from behind him.

Eren whipped around to see who had been watching him, they must have been watching him, but the question was how much did they see? Fuck, how much did they see?

His eyes landed on a small form, just between two average sized trees. Although the lighting wasn't great he caught a flash of blonde hair as the figure shifted, so he gave a tentative "Krista?"

As the figure stepped forward, Eren could see that their hair was tied up into a signature bun, one that he knew from only one person in the camp.

"Not quite." Annie chuckled as she crossed her arms. "So, are you done?"

"I, um, yeah." Eren stammered. "I think so."

"Great, because I don't think I could've kept my cool if I had to see you throw another honestly horrific punch at one of those trees."

Eren scrunched his nose as he responded, "They weren't that bad."

"Eren, if those tree hadn't been inanimate, you would've never landed a hit on any of em'"

"That's not true! I may not have had the best stance, but they were pretty fast."

"Maybe from your point of view, but definitely not to me."

"Ok, well that's because you're some kind of weird superhuman fighting machine, and I'm not."

"That's what you think." Annie murmured under her breath, just quiet enough she was sure Eren couldn't hear.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." She responded, taking her weight off of her left foot and leaning upon the tree next to her. "You don't have to hide your hands y'know."

"Huh?" Eren asked startled. He'd been purposefully keeping his back to her as well as shoving his hands into his lap in order to stifle the last bits of steam that was escaping as the scraps healed. "I'm not hiding them. Why would you think I'm hiding them?"

Annie simply sighed as she brought up her left hand stating. "Because I, Eren Jaeger-"

She swiped her thumb across the ring she always wore on her pointer finger, and oh Eren hadn't realized there was a hidden blade there. Not that it would do much good, it was way too small to cause any real damage, and who would want a blade on the inside of their palm that just seemed like a way to-

And then swiped her thumb across the blade.

"-Am just like you."

He watched transfixed as within seconds of making the cut, steam erupted from the area around it, pulling and knitting the skin back together.

His jaw dropped as he kept staring at Annie's open hand, because holy shit there were others like him.

There were other people who could heal. There were others like him, this weird titan hybrid that wasn't quite human, but certainly wasn't a fifteen meter man eating beast either.

"If you leave your mouth open you start catching mosquitoes." Annie said, breaking the silence.

Eren clamped his mouth shut, responding, "Sorry I just-I didn't think-I mean-"

"Don't tell me you've never seen this healing before, because I wouldn't believe you."

"No,no,no, I have!" Eren quickly stated, "I just...didn't think there'd be more people like me."

Annie's face softened as she replied, "Yeah, me neither to be honest."

"So, what exactly are we?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we're not exactly human right? But we're not titans, or at least I'm assuming that's what these abilities come from, because what happened earlier wouldn't really make sense otherwise…"

And in that moment Annie realized that she'd stumble upon both the best, and worst possible scenario.

Eren was definitely the coordinate, because there was no other titan that was missing on Paradis, but he knew literally nothing. He probably didn't even know how to shift, much less how to use the unique abilities the coordinate gifted him.

They could take him right now. Snatch him away, across the ocean and be hailed as heroes, and he wouldn't be able to resist them no matter how hard he tried.

They'd be hailed as heroes back in their homeland, known as the people who stopped the island devils, the Eldians who proved that they weren't the same people as their ancestors. That they wanted to help.

But at what cost?

She stared at Eren, his eyes full of hope and wonder, and imagined tears streaming down his face as he spit curses while she, in her titan form, carried him, Bertholdt, and Reiner back to the ocean.

She thought of Sasha, and Ymir, and Marco, and Krista, and god, everybody she'd met who weren't devils.

Those living on this island weren't devils at all. They were just people. People who were terrified of the world around them, only knowing what was within these walls.

And she couldn't do it.

Annie pushed herself off of the tree she'd been leaning on as she strode over to Eren, putting herself into a crouch to become level with his face and responded. "Titan shifters. We're called titan shifters."


	6. That's Gonna Come Back To Bite You

Eren was...shocked to say the least. In less than a day he'd gone from not even knowing that he could turn into a titan, or at least part of one, to knowing that there was a whole group of people who could. In fact, that was their defining feature if the name was to be believed.

"Wait, so...I can turn into a titan?" Eren asked.

Annie seemed confused for a second before saying, "Yes? What else would we be able to do?"

"Well, um, I didn't even really realize it was anything more than healing and regeneration until this morning when I kinda uh, messed up? And well I made this weird titan torso thing, or at least I _think_ I made it but I'm not really sure-"

Annie put a hand up to stop him and asked, "What do you mean by _messed up_?"

"Oh well, ever since I realized I can heal I've been testing it." Eren explained, placing a hand on the back of his neck sheepishly. "That's what I've been doing in the woods these past few weeks, and earlier when I was testing something startled me, so I messed up."

"Ok, while I am glad to know why you've been disappearing, that still doesn't explain exactly what messing up, or any of your testing, for that matter, entails."

"Um well for a while I thought it was only healing, so I was just using a knife and a pocket watch to test how long it took to heal from minor and major injuries. So earlier today I tried to see what would happen with some major blood loss and my hand uh, slipped."

Annie pinched her fingers along the bridge of her nose. Fuck this was so much worse than she thought it'd be. "Slipped?"

"I mean, I was pretty startled so…" Eren trailed off. He still hadn't figured out exactly what had made the noise next to him, but he also hadn't had anyone ask him what the fuck he was doing, craving open his own throat, so he assumed it was an animal.

"Eren what the fuck did you do."

"Ah well, there's this big artery that goes through your neck and I thought that it would be the perfect thing to test."

Annie, still in a crouched position, moved both of her hands over her face as she moaned, "You cut your fucking carotid artery!?"

"Um, well not exactly? As I said earlier I kinda slipped and took out a good chunk of my throat as well."

She lifted her head from her hands as she just stared at him for a while in complete disbelief.

This boy, this fucking boy. God, she had heard all of Reiner's and Bertholdt's stories about the stupid shit he'd done so far, but had taken their jokes about Eren being straight up unable to think with a grain of salt.

It seems that she should have taken them much more literally.

"So you took out your throat and then shifted, is that what happened this morning?" Annie asked.

To be honest, Eren was pretty confused as to why Annie was trying to make such a big deal out of this. I mean it ended without any real damage and even a new discovery for him, which was a big win in his book. "I think I passed out first to be honest."

"So you didn't have a goal in mind or anything before you passed out? There was nothing you wanted to do?"

Eren grimaced. "Well I wanted to live pretty bad, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Annie sighed. "Not that much, but you definitely didn't shift while passed out."

"Huh?"

"In order to shift we have to be awake, in a life-threatening state, and have a goal, or a reason I guess, for using the power."

While the second half of her statement _technically _wasn't a lie, Annie wanted to keep Eren partially in the dark about the extent of what he could do.

A rage fueled titan Eren that thought he could only shift in life or death situations was dangerous enough, one that knew he could shift whenever he wanted would be catastrophic.

Although she knew that it was simply to protect herself and shouldn't lead to any major issues in the future, it didn't stop her from feeling slightly guilty as Eren stared up at her like she'd uncovered the secrets of the universe.

"So if there's a big issue I can just...become a huge ass titan and kill everything?" Eren asked throwing his hands up for emphasis.

Although having to be in a life threatening situation was certainly a handicap, he figured that worst comes to worst he could just create that himself with a knife or two. Besides, the Survey Corps are always in life-threatening situations, so it shouldn't be that big of a problem.

"Basically."

"Holy shit. Holy shit!" Eren exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. "Annie there are two of us, maybe more! Do you know what this means?"

Annie opened her mouth to respond, but was quickly cut off as he finished the sentence for her. "We can save humanity. We can go outside of the walls and just-just obliterate all the titans out there! We can go out and be free! We can go see the ocean…"

Annie smiled, as she thought. Maybe this would be much easier than she had planned after all.

"Yeah. If you want we could head out now, I could probably find it after running for a bit."

She'd expected unending enthusiasm from him at this proposal, so she was more than a little shocked when she glanced up to his face, only to see him conflicted.

"Well I mean, yeah but I promised Armin that we'd see the ocean together."

Shit, that was a problem. While Annie had no doubts that Eren would take basically any information she gave him as gospel, she wasn't so sure about Armin.

That boy was smart, too smart. She'd already been extra careful to limit any of her interaction with him, or around him, and with the extra factor of Eren being the loudmouth he was, she didn't know if she could keep her true intentions a secret or not.

Fuck, she did know. Armin would figure out the holes in story and information the second Eren gave it to him, and wouldn't stop until he figured out exactly what was going on. Neither her, Reiner, nor Bertholdt would even be able to make it out of the camp before being discovered, which would ruin _everything_.

"Why not just go see it now, then come back later to show it to him," She offered, "that way we can figure out the quickest path and minimize the danger of titans."

"Because I promised I'd see it _with _him, not see it then drag him along."

Annie frowned. Damn Eren and his stubbornness.

"Why don't we just tell him and Mikasa, then have them come with us?" Eren asked.

"No. Absolutely not."

"But why, I don't-"

"Eren, why have you been hiding your abilities from them?"

"Well that's because I don't want them to think I'm lying, or some kind of monster-"

She cut him off with a wave of the hand as she said, "Exactly. I know that you've known them for a while, but you're not even sure that they would take the news that you're a titan shifter well, so there's no guarantees for me. I'm not willing to put myself into more risk than I need to, plus the more people that know about a secret, the harder it is to keep."

"But they wouldn't say anything." Eren stated, frowning. Though he knew if he told his friends the reason that he'd been acting suspicious lately they'd be mad, they'd certainly understand the importance of keeping his abilities a secret. They wouldn't be petty enough to put him in danger over a little bit of lying, right?

"I don't doubt that they wouldn't go directly to our superiors and report us, but all it would take is a slip of the tongue, and then what?"

"Well, they'd see what powerful weapons we could be and-"

"They'd kill us." Annie stated with finality. "They'd kill us and never look back because we're a danger, Eren. Think of it like this. For every titan you could kill after you shift, you could kill thousands more civilians."

And so Eren did.

He thought about the only other titans he knew may be intelligent, the armored and the colossal. He thought about how with one swift motion they'd killed hundreds of thousands of people. Innocent people who never did anything but try to live within the walls.

Looking down at his hands he realized that power resided within him as well. The only difference between him and those bastards would be how he handled that power.

Except his superiors wouldn't know that. All they'd see is a potential threat, regardless of how beneficial he or Annie could be in battle.

Fuck, how could he have been so stupid.

Annie watched as the realization dawned on his face before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and saying, "Do you understand why we can't tell anyone? Do you understand why _I _haven't told anyone except for you?"

"Yeah I...I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not like any of this is your fault."

They both sat in an uncomfortable silence for a minute, simply listening to the wind whip leaves around the area before Eren asked, "So if there are others, do you know any of them?"

"No." She lied. "I thought I was alone."

Finally deciding to stand up, as the cold ground became too uncomfortable to sit on he asked, "Then how did you know what we are? Who else knows?"

"As far as I know, only the people who lived in my village, and they all got crushed during the fall."

"Fuck, that makes it even more important to find who the armored and colossal titan are then! Annie you gotta help me with this."

She jolted back a bit, "What makes you think that those two are titan shifters?"

Looking down at her Eren made a confused face. "Well, they knew what parts of the wall to attack, and when right? Wouldn't that mean they had to be intelligent? I mean, I'm just kinda assuming, but wouldn't it just make sense that they'd be shifters?"

Ok, that was bad. It seems like when Eren was really focused on something he could make relatively smart conclusions.

"Maybe, maybe not." Annie replied, rocking onto the front of her feet, and pushing herself up to full height. "There could be a lot of stuff beyond these walls that I just don't know about."

Eren faltered for a second, "But I thought-"

"Plus it wouldn't make any sense for them to totally destroy Maria, then suddenly decide to live here among us, would it?"

Eren looked to the ground conflicted. No, it wouldn't make sense to kill so many people, then suddenly be all buddy buddy with those who survived, _especially_ since there hadn't been an attack since the fall.

But it was the last bits of humanity inside these walls! No human could survive outside in that titan infested wasteland for any extended period of time.

But they wouldn't exactly be human would they? If he went with the assumption that they_ were_ titan shifters, which was more than probable-Especially considering the fact that many of the people stationed on the wall that day claimed that no one had attacked the colossal, yet it just disappeared into thin air-that would mean they could simply kill of any titans that attempted to eat them.

Would_ any _titans attempt to eat them for that matter? Would any titans attempt to eat him or Annie? Technically they were human, or at least partially, but would that little titan bit repel them? From what he'd heard titans were on a strict low-carb human diet.

Eren opened his mouth to ask Annie, only to shut it once more as he took in her annoyed face.

"It's getting kinda cold and dark out here, so if you want to stay and freeze that'd be fine by me, but I'm leaving."

"No, wait don't leave me here!"

Although it had felt like much longer to Eren, the two were able to make it back in time for dinner, entering the mess hall a few minutes before they stopped serving food.

After grabbing their respective plates Eren gave a quick goodbye before making a beeline for the table Armin and Mikasa had been sitting at, noting that Jean was already there with some displeasure.

He was still somewhat upset with Armin, but at least recognized the fact that it had been a shit move for him to leave while he was getting chewed out by Mikasa.

(For a second he also recognized the fact that it was even more of a shit move to keep things from them, and that they just wanted the best for him and were only trying to help, but he quashed that down the second it popped up.)

"Hey guys, sorry I left I just had to-"

"Had to what? Go make out with Annie or something? Everyone saw how you two walked in late together." Jean interrupted.

Eren flushed. What was it with people interrupting him today? "Um, no. For your information we were just discussing throwing techniques."

Jean snorted. "Is that what you two call it?"

"I think you're projecting horseface, cause' I feel like every time you and Marco are late it's because y'all were 'discussing 3DMG maneuvers'" Eren fired back, making air quotes with his hands.

"Ok, but that's different."

"Is it though?"

"Yes, because-"

"I know that you guys didn't get a chance to do your weird dick measuring contest today, but can we please discuss the reasons for that, mainly the fact that Eren, you disappeared for like forever without telling anyone!"

Eren shrunk in his seat for a little bit before replying, "But I did tell you where I'd be, y'all just didn't believe me."

"Frankly because your story was crock full of shit." Mikasa replied coolly. "We're not stupid Eren."

"I don't think you guys are, I just think you're looking for something that's not there."

Both Mikasa and Armin glared at him, as Jean decided that he suddenly wanted nothing to with the conversation and made the move to leave.

Only to be stopped by Armin swiftly tugging on his sleeve.

"Oh, no, Jean I'd like you to stay and hear the bullshit Eren has been trying to feed us."

Ohhh boy, this was gonna be bad, wasn't it?

Jean sat back down as Eren began to defend himself.

"I told both of you exactly where I'd be, and what'd I'd be doing! I get it, I came back a little late, but Armin you've done that while reading, and Mikasa, you've done it while training as well! I believed you then, so why can't you believe me now?"

"Because you've been doing it consistently!" Armin cried. "All of a sudden you started disappearing for a while, then coming back super late, and we're worried ok!?"

"Ok, fine. But it's not like I'm coming back hurt or anything, so I don't understand-"

"Except that you are. Armin says he almost always sees new bloodstains on your clothes after you come back." Mikasa interrupted.

Shit, really? And he had been so careful to make sure there were none…

"Well, what's it to you if I hunt a rabbit or two while I'm out there, it's not that big of a deal."

"How? Why? What're you doing with the meat? What're you doing with the fur? If you're eating them, how are you cooking them? If not, why haven't I seen rabbit carcasses lying around? Why haven't-"

"**_Alright_**! I get it, you guys don't wanna fuckin' believe me, you don't have to rub it in my face!"

"Rub it in your face? What the hell do you mean by that?" Mikasa asked, starting to get angry. "You've been dancing around our questions and lying to us for-for weeks! We're just trying to help!"

"Obviously not, because if you were you'd take the hint and _leave me_**_ alone."_** Eren hissed as he leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table.

Who the fuck did they think they were to question him like this? He'd given them possible excuses, and while yeah, they were lies, he'd thought they'd at least trust him a little bit!

Guess he was fucking wrong.

(Except he knew it wasn't their fault, it was never their fault and he was being an awful fucking friend for pushing this back on them because they're only worried and they're doing their best, they're trying to help-)

He clenched his fists hard enough that he could feel his nails bite through the soft flesh of his palm, and grit his teeth as Mikasa continued to retaliate.

Fuck, why couldn't they just leave this alone?

As the group continued to argue, they grew louder and louder, until a large chunk of the mess hall had taken notice.

It was normal to hear_ some_ loud squabbles-usually courtesy of Eren and Jean-however to hear the normally tight group screaming and at each others throats was...more than a bit unsettling for a majority of the mess hall.

Jean, for his part, was attempting to curl in on himself, making himself as small as possible, yet not daring to leave the table in fear that he'd be roped into the argument as he left.

Walls, that was the last thing that he wanted to happen.

Scanning the mess hall, he noticed that a good chunk of the previous cadets had already left, the remaining few either on the edge of their seat, waiting to see how it'll turn out, or simply waiting for a good time to leave.

Well, except for Annie and Ymir, who just looked totally unfazed.

Yet while Ymir didn't seem to be bothered by the screaming, Krista very obviously was, and kept squirming within her seat. She seemed to be bargaining with Ymir about...well something. Even if those two had been sitting directly across from him, he probably still wouldn't have heard them with how loud the trio next to him was being.

Sweet Sina, he knew that Eren could be loud, but Mikasa and Armin were a surprise.

"-right Jean?" Mikasa asked, rather loudly.

He snapped back to attention, realizing that he'd totally tuned them out for the last couple of minutes.

"Um, well-I, um-"

"Oi, why the fuck are you asking horseface?"

"Because I just wanna make sure that I'm not the only one hearing this_ bullshit."_ Armin yelled, and oh boy Armin swearing was really fucking bad.

The trio all turned to face him, obviously expecting some kind of answer, to which Jean had none to give.

Even if he had known what the question was beforehand, he wouldn't have wanted to answer anyway!

Give a response in Eren's favor and he'd lose the minuscule chance he had with Mikasa, and Armin would probably make his life hell through _some_ sort of scheme. Answer in their favor and Eren would beat his ass ten ways from Sunday-and holy shit, could Eren hit hard even when he wasn't pissed, he didn't ever want to be on the receiving end of his full wrath-so there was no winning!

Jean rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he began to stumble over a response, "I think that um-well, I mean...I don't think I'm really qualified to give an answer?" Great, stay neutral and he might just be able to make it out of this alive!

"See I told you, he's biased so asking him won't help at all! He's not gonna defend me no matter how right I am."

"Eren don't you dare use words I taught you against me."

"Oh,_ I'm sorry_ I didn't realize you were the word police."

"That was uncalled for." Mikasa seethed, and walls, why did Jean decide that sitting here would be a good idea today?

Luckily for him, he began to hear two pairs of footsteps grow closer and closer to the table, and as he glanced back was pleased to see that they were from Ymir and Krista, both attempting to leave.

"Krista!" Jean exclaimed, jumping out of his seat just as the two began to pass him. Krista stumbled back a bit as Jean continued. "You were listening in on the conversation right? And you're impartial!"

"Oi, what the hell do you think-" Ymir started, but was quickly cut off by Krista raising her hand in front of her face.

"It's fine, I mean, I'd be helping right?"

Eren just snorted while Jean enthusiastically nodded.

"Um, well to be honest I don't really think any of you are handling this well, but Mikasa and Armin kinda have a point." Krista said.

"What!"

"Eren, I told you that any normal person would agree with us." replied Armin smugly.

While he had no doubts that Armin was probably right, Jean still had no fucking clue what the question was.

"Krista how could you agree with them!" Eren pleaded. "You disappear all the time without telling anybody where you're going!"

"Hey, she tells me!"

"No shit Ymir, it doesn't count if you disappear too!"

Armin cradled his head in his hands as he picked up his elbows, only to slam them back down on the table a few times. Sweet fucking Sina was this awful.

"So what? It's none of your business what Krista does in her free time."

"And it's none of yours what I do in mine!"

Ymir leaned forward and pointed to Mikasa and Armin as she began to yell, "_I _don't give a shit what you do, but those two do, so you better fucking fix it!"

"Guys!" Krista shouted, as she placed herself between the two angry brunettes. She pushed Ymir back using her left hand, as she placed her right on Eren's nape. "Screaming at each other isn't going to fix anything, we need to-"

All six at the table were stopped in their tracks as a solid 'thunk' rang out throughout the room, their eyes all being drawn to the center of the group to see-

Ah. Eren had passed out.

Walls Eren couldn't remember the last time he'd been so angry, well actually he could because it had been less than three hours ago, but that was besides the point.

Fuck Armin and Mikasa for continuing to argue, fuck Armin in particular for forcing Jean to stay, fuck Jean and Krista for not taking his side, and fuck Ymir in general.

Nobody had ever had a problem with anything he'd done before, but suddenly he disappears for a little bit and gets the _tiniest _bit of blood on his pants and **_now _**it's everyone's fucking business.

Truth be told, he'd stopped listening to any of what Armin or Mikasa said a while back because as much as he pretended that it didn't, their accusations hurt. Their lack of trust hurt. The fact that Eren knew he was lying to them and they were just concerned fucking hurt, and he couldn't handle it.

So he defaulted to the thing he knew best, anger.

"And it's none of yours what I do with mine!" He yelled. Walls he felt like an asshole.

It wasn't Ymir's fault, it wasn't anyone's fault other than his own, but to admit that would mean that he'd have to tell Mikasa and Armin what he'd been doing, and he knew that they'd probably still accept him, walls there was almost no way they wouldn't but what if?

'What if?' Whispered a small voice at the back of his mind. What if they didn't accept him, what if they saw him as a monster, something less than human. What if they became scared themselves and sent him to the chopping block?

They'd been there the day the wall fell too. They'd seen the utter havoc titans could wreak just by existing, with thousands pulled apart in their grip, sliced by their teeth, and crushed beneath their lumbering stride as they moved toward their next meal.

To add to that, he couldn't even reassure them that he wouldn't be like those titans,_ because he didn't know_. From what Annie said, it sounded as if he would still have full control once he shifted into a full titan, but it was still possible that it was only bare minimum control, or it took a lot of time and training to get that full control.

And there was no room for error when you're about ten times your original height.

Eren was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Krista's hand reaching out toward him, until it came into contact with his neck.

At first all he felt was fear. Pure unadulterated terror as every single muscle in his body rapidly tensed, because someone was touching his nape and that was a bad spot, _bad spot, he had to move, _**_to move_**_!_ But then it stopped.

And suddenly he was somewhere else.

A large cavern, full of gorgeous blue crystals-they almost looked like the shiny stones that the women in the inner city wore around their necks, that ones that costed more than most people ever make in their lifetime-and a group of people in all white standing directly in front of him.

The one in the middle, a woman with shoulder length black hair was yelling something, something, but Eren couldn't hear. It felt as if his head was submerged underwater, his body no longer his, as if he were just a spectator watching from the outside.

Briefly, Eren realized, he should probably be concerned.

Armin had talked about something like this before, where after really bad events to cope with the trauma some people's minds just kinda...kick them out. "It's like watching a show depicting your own life." he had explained, and while Eren had thought it impossible at the time, it definitely seemed possible now.

Except he'd never seen these people before, never seen this place, and he certainly hadn't been sitting in a weird crystalline cave a minute ago.

Then he was moving, which was odd because Eren hadn't wanted to, and hadn't attempted to, but it allowed him to see his hands and forearms, which were covered with a black jacket, shirt frills just barely poking out.

Huh. That was new.

The black jacket was recognizable, but still odd. It should have been sitting back in the barracks, folded along with his other civilian clothing, as he hadn't worn it since the day he obtained his trainee jacket, but the frills were something totally different.

Walls, he'd never be caught dead wearing some kind of fancy ass shirt like that under his jacket, but before he could mull over it the woman brought her hand up to her mouth and…

Bit right through the fleshy part of her thumb, and holy shit, why the fuck would she do that? Eren felt like flinching just from watching the display, but then the scene changed and suddenly a titan, massive and looking like a woman-he thought the commander said all titans lacked any distinguishing gender features?- was running straight at him, her hand in a fist, but it was….different somehow.

For one, he was eye-level with the beast, and it looked like he was looking through some sort of goggles, but he was sure there was nothing on his face.

Her fist came closer as Eren attempted to bring his arms up to brace for impact, but he couldn't, his arms felt too heavy and they weren't responding, and fuck it wouldn't do any good anyway would it? Trying to block a titan fist with his arms was desperate at best, and he was going to die here, thrown into those shiny walls because of a random fucking titan.

But then the fist made contact. Eren could feel himself stumble back, almost losing his footing, but nothing like the full slam into the walls he had been expecting.

In fact, it didn't even feel like it'd hit his whole body, just the ride side of his face, and holy shit was _he_ a titan?!

Another flash and he was on top of her, pinning her shoulders to the ground as she struggled against him. She looked bruised and exhausted, as if she was fighting a losing battle, yet still trying in vain to free herself.

Eren could see the fear in her eyes, the anger and frustration, and for the first time, he felt bad for a titan.

This one didn't look lifeless like the rest, hell she was entirely proportionate as well, simply looking like a fifteen meter tall human, but he couldn't free her. He still had no control over his arms or legs, and even if he did, he probably still would have killed her.

Eren felt a pang of sadness rip through him as he saw his right hand, large and veiny like a titan's, lift off of one of her shoulders, probably to crush the nape. For all he knew she could have been trying to kill those people he'd seen earlier, but something told him that wasn't right. Something told him she'd been protecting.

He wanted to close his eyes as the hand lifted up higher, preparing to strike, but that's not what happened.

The hand was placed beneath her shoulder and used to flip her onto her side, and Eren felt her struggles increase.

Suddenly he was moving, his vision growing closer and closer to her neck, her nape, and he couldn't be planning on biting it could he?

Eren watched in horror as he descended, wanting to scream. No he didn't want this! He wasn't going to eat her like some fucking mindless titan, he was different, he could just kill her by crushing and it'd be done! He didn't need to do this.

But he couldn't control himself.

He felt his jaw drop open and place itself over the bone that jutted out from her neck and **_bite_**.

His teeth slid through flesh and bone as it were simply a bit of meat that had been rationed out to the cadets as a warm metallic liquid began to fill his mouth, and he _pulled_.

Hands still firmly placed on her shoulders, he ripped his head back, pulling the chunk of flesh between his teeth with it, but that wasn't all.

Out of his peripheral he could see her head coming along with him, eyes dead and lifeless and he finally bit clean through the bone.

The meat slid cleanly down his throat, aided by the blood he could feel spilling over his mouth, as her head dropped to the ground, and Eren wanted to puke.

Fuck, this wasn't him, what the fuck was happening, why couldn't he control himself, where the fuck was he!

Not even getting a moment to recover, he felt his head swivel, eyes locking onto the group of people from before, all frozen in fear. Why hadn't they run? Why were they still here!?

His body lunged to the people who now began to flee, but they were too late.

Two were crushed beneath his massive hand, as another, holding a child fell under his feet.

'Probably a mother,' Eren thought dizzily, 'A mother just trying to save her child.'

Two of the men were running, running as fast as they could to an exit, but Eren had size on his side.

No matter how fast they ran, they couldn't escape his hand, reaching, grabbing the younger male as he began to squeeze. Bones crunched under his fingers as the man became little more than paste in his hands, and Eren didn't want this.

He didn't want to be here, out of control and slaughtering people as if he really were a mindless titan, but worse, because this was targeted, because he wasn't eating these people, he was just killing to kill, slaughtering innocents who had done nothing wrong, and he didn't want to be here,_ he didn't want to be here!_

Eren's eyes shot open, and for a second he couldn't move. Panic began to set in, as it was just like wherever he was before, trapped without any way to control himself, simply destroying all in his path, until he saw the familiar ceiling of the medical tent.

His breathing began to slow as he took in what was around him. His head was lying on something soft and cushioning while the rest of his body was enveloped within a comforting warmth.

Movement finally coming back to him, he turned his head to see Armin sitting next to him, a thick book in hand.

Hah, typical.

"Armin?" Eren asked tentatively. He had no idea why he was in the med tent, nor how long he'd been out for.

The vision, or dream, or whatever it was hadn't felt any longer than five minutes, but it obviously had been for his tablemates to have been able to drag him to the med tent.

Armin looked up and immediately dropped his book. "Oh my walls, Eren you're awake! Are you ok, do you feel faint, does your head hurt, is there anything that hurts?"

Eren flinched back a bit. Yeah, his head kinda hurt, but it wasn't all that bad, and saying something would just lead to Armin worrying more, so he elected to respond with a, "Nah, I'm all good. How long have I been out?"

"You've been out for almost a full day, and-MIKASA HE'S AWAKE-we've been really worried because you kinda just fainted out of nowhere, and we didn't know what caused it, and you had a bit of a fever when you came in here, but we couldn't find anything wrong and it wasn't going down no matter what we did for a while, so-"

Armin's rambling was cut off by Mikasa quickly rounding the corner that led into the resting room of the med tent as she asked, "Eren are you ok?"

"Yeah, like I just told Armin it's all-"

Within a second she was at his side, lifting him up by the collar of his shirt.

"Do **_not _**lie to me this time."

Eren tried to shirk back, an effort made entirely useless as she drew him closer to her face.

"What do you mean? I'm totally fine-"

"Your ears are red."

Fuck.

"Ok, I have a bit of a headache, but honestly I'm all good! It's not even that bad."

Mikasa scanned his face again, searching for any reason to not believe him, before finally dropping him back to where he'd been sitting before.

The three sat in a comfortable silence for a minute as Eren rubbed at his temples to give a small bit of relief to the pounding that had started after she had yelled directly in his face before Armin spoke up.

"Eren, I understand why you lied before, but please, for our sake and yours, stop lying over such small things, ok?"

"I know it's partially my fault too," Mikasa continued, "But I'll try to be better about my…'overprotectiveness' in the future, so please if you're going to do something possibly harmful just...tell us. I promise I won't be mad."

While Eren was grateful that they seemed to be over the argument, he still had no clue what they were talking about.

"Huh?"

"Annie told us what you had been doing in the woods all this time."

Eren felt his blood run cold. Annie had told them? Told them about his experiments? How he could become a monster? And they were ok with it?

They were ok with his testing?

"Ah...what exactly did she tell you?"

"She told us everything," Armin responded, "And while I'm disappointed in you for not thinking things through, it didn't really end up being anything harmful, so I guess it's ok."

Wait, so they were just ok with what he did? He'd thought they'd be a little bit more upset, especially Mikasa with how pissed she gets whenever he ends up with the slightest scratch.

"I mean, I'm not happy that you two decided to go off on your own to practice hand to hand, especially outside of training times, but I can see why, considering your scores in it lately." Mikasa shrugged.

That was...nowhere near what he had been expecting. Tension flowed out of Eren's body as he realized that Annie had covered for him, pretty nicely as well if Armin and Mikasa were no longer suspicious.

He relaxed back onto the pillow, yet couldn't find it in himself to be too happy about the situation. Yes, Armin and Mikasa were off his back, and probably would be for a while, if not indefinitely, but he'd still have to continue to lie to them.

He'd still have to stare them in the face as he betrayed their trust because he had no clue if they'd still accept him after they found out what he could do, what he was.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." Eren said through clenched teeth. "I just...I didn't want to worry you guys, y'know, and I didn't want to drag Annie down with me."

"We know, but honestly, your lying had us more worried than the actual story. Just tell us ok? The worst we can do is get mad at you."

'Or you could report me to the military police and get me executed.' Eren thought bitterly. As each moment passed he began to feel worse and worse about this predicament, but it wasn't like he could say anything now without throwing Annie under the bus.

Fuck, this sucked.

"I'm sorry."

"Hey it's in the past now right." Armin said with a soft smile. "You can't do anything to change it now, so don't beat yourself up over it, ok?"

"I'm not." Really, he wasn't, but beating himself up over the lie he was still telling was fair game.

"Now we've got to focus on more important things like," She whipped around to face Eren, "the fact that you haven't eaten in almost a full day."

"Oh yeah, but I'm not really all that hungry." Eren said with a wave of the hand.

"I thought we agreed to stop with the lying?"

"Yeah, but I'm telling the truth now." and he really was. Although he hadn't eaten much at dinner the day prior, before he'd passed out, the scene that had played while he'd been asleep still had him nauseous and without any desire to eat things for a while.

Mikasa glared at him slightly before spinning on her heel and responding, "Too bad, you're going to eat regardless."

The two boys watched her retreat around the corner, before turning to each other.

"Are you _sure_ everything's ok, Eren?"

"Yes, I've said it like five times!" Eren said, throwing his head back in exhaustion. "I don't understand why you guys keep asking me that."

"I know, I know, but you've just been...off I guess. Like something's been bothering you ever since you woke up."

"What! No, no, everything's fine, I'm just a bit groggy from being out for so long."

Armin pursed his lips as he stood up from the chair he'd been sitting in. He placed a hand on Eren's forehead, which Eren instantly backed away from.

"Sina, your hand is cold!"

Armin simply frowned and stated, "You're still really warm…"

Yeah, no shit, but it wasn't like Eren could change his temperature at will, or could he? He'd have to ask Annie at some point, because it'd be extremely inconvenient if he'd have to flub every temperature test he'd be forced to take in the future.

"It's probably just the remnants of the fever you said I had earlier. Really, I'm totally fine."

Eren was not fine.

Remnants of his vision or dream-he was just gonna stick with calling it a dream, because to call it a vision implied that it could, or did, happen-kept flashing through his head. He knew it wasn't him, couldn't have been him, because he'd never seen that place in is life, nor had he ever transformed into a full on titan, with lost memories being out of the question due to the fact that Armin and Mikasa would have noticed if he had suddenly changed into a frilly shirt and grabbed his black jacket.

He'd still have to check to make sure that it hadn't been moved in storage though. Just to be absolutely certain.

That left either the weirdest and most vivid dream he'd ever had, or something that he had been made to see for some reason, whether it be a future possibility, something that had been happening at the time, or a past event, each equally implausible.

Honestly, it was making Eren sick just thinking about the possibility that it could be real, that someone would be cold-hearted and ruthless enough to slaughter and innocent family and their protection for whatever reason.

But it wasn't like there was a way for events that happened elsewhere to be shown to another person like they had been right there, looking in from the perspective of _whoever_, which left a dream as the logical conclusion, but it had felt so_ real_.

He could still hear the soft crunch of bones as he squeezed his hand, the slight resistance of flesh before it gave way and burst, the feeling of his teeth sliding through-

"Hey, they didn't have anything lighter than the normal bean soup and potatoes, but I think it'll be ok." said Mikasa as she walked into the tent, balancing a small bowl and a potato on a tray.

"Yeah that's fine, but I already said I'm not hungry."

"Too bad. You need to eat."

"I don't want to."

She sighed and placed the tray roughly on the stand next to him. "Eren, you're either going to eat this voluntarily, or I'm going to force it down your throat."

He looked over to Armin, who simply shrugged helplessly.

"Fine, fine, I'll eat it, just relax."

Truth be told, he was dreading eating anything. His memory of the dream was too fresh, too vivid to be totally ignored, and he just knew that it'd come back up the second anything hit his teeth.

"Oh, I also grabbed and filled up your water sack too, so make sure to drink some of that."

"I know, I will."

Eren threw the blanket off of his legs and swung them to the same side as Armin, placing the tray on top of them. He stared down at the food, wishing that it would just disappear, but alas, the potato and soup simply stayed where they were, letting off small wisps of steam as if they were mocking him.

"You gonna eat, or are you just going to glare that poor potato out of existence?" Armin asked jokingly, but Eren was not amused.

"I'm gonna eat, but I already told you, I'm not hungry. Just give me a minute."

Armin simply rolled his eyes and picked his book back up, while Mikasa took his blanket and began to fold it. Eren hesitantly gripped the potato, before breaking it in two. It was pleasantly warm in his hands, as if it'd been cooked recently and set to cool for a minute or two, and under any normal circumstance, Eren would have no qualms about digging in.

Yet as he held it, the potato seemed to grow heavier, as it was something other than plant matter, as if it were-

Nope, not going there. The only thing in his hand was a half of a potato, nothing but a root grown beneath the ground, boiled to become soft, and served to all the cadets because they were cheap. Just a potato.

Eren continued to repeat this to himself as he brought the piece to his mouth and bit down, the flesh of the plant yielding under his canines as he pulled it apart, the weight settling uncomfortably over his tongue.

He could feel the nausea rise up again as he continued to chew, mashing the food until it was nothing but a paste, then finally relenting to swallow, the thick sludge beginning to slide down his throat, just like, like-

Eren scrambled to the very edge of the bed, soup sloshing, and promptly threw up-directly onto Armins shoes.

And oh, those had been new, new boots that Armin had saved up for with his own money after his previous pair had been ruined in the rain, and Armin had been so excited to get them, and now they were ruined because of him and his stupid fucking inability to be a good friend, becuase even after they told him that he could trust them, he still lied ot their faces, he could see exactly how much it hurt them, and he still lied, but he couldn't tell the truth, he couldn't-

Eren hadn't even realized that he'd started crying until he felt Armin wrap his arms around his neck while Mikasa rubbed his back.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-I didn't want-" He sobbed as he pulled Armin closer.

"Hey, hey, hey it's, okay." Armin whispered reassuringly. "You said you're not hungry, and we should have listened to you. It's not your fault."

Eren shook his head. That's not what he was apologizing for, and it _was_ his fault. He had the option to tell them, fuck he still did, but he couldn't. He wouldn't be able to handle it if they rejected him now, if they treated him like the monster he was, the way he knew he deserved to be treated.

But he couldn't say any of that. He just couldn't.

So Eren opted to pull Armin closer and dig his hands into the back of the blond's shirt as Mikasa ran her hands in comforting circles over his back and through his hair.

And there they sat for who knows how long, until Armin felt the grip on his shirt loosen and Mikasa felt the muscles underneath her hands relax.

He tentatively pulled back, placing Eren's head back onto the pillow and his hands in front of him. Surprisingly, throughout the ordeal the soup had stayed firmly put, and aside from a few splashes on the mattress and Eren's shirt, had avoided making any sort of mess.

The same could not be said for Armin's shoes however.

"How bad is it?" Mikasa asked in a whisper.

"A direct shot." Armin responded dryly. "If his aim was anywhere near as good as this with the 3DMG gear, he'd be having a much easier time during training."

She chuckled softly as she pulled out a spare blanket from the drawer beside her, throwing it over Eren in one smooth motion. While now peaceful, both could see the red rings and tear tracks underneath his eyes, indicative of the prior incident.

"I didn't think he'd get so upset over something as small as messing up your shoes."

Armin sighed as he moved to find one of the many buckets he knew were kept within the tent. "I don't really think it was that to be honest."

"What do you mean?"

"Well his reaction seemed kinda...extreme, don't you think? I think something else is really bothering him."

"Like what-oh and here's a bucket."

Armin grabbed the bucket and pulled open his own water sack, using it to fill the bucket around half way. "Thank you, but I don't really know. If it had been before today, I would have said whatever secret he had been keeping but now…"

He dumped the bucket on top of the toes of his shoes and the area surrounding them, diluting the bile so it could be mopped up with a towel.

Mikasa walked up from behind him, carrying three large towels, as well as a bottle of some type of cleaning agent, of what exactly Armin wasn't entirely sure.

"Maybe he's just sick. Annie _had_ said he was running a fever when she took his temperature."

"Maybe." Armin responded, but that didn't feel right, and both of them knew it. There was something else going on, something that Eren either couldn't or wouldn't say, yet the question of exactly what eluded both of them.

As much as neither wanted to admit it, they were back to the drawing board, and two steps back from where they'd started now that they knew what he'd been doing in his free time.

"Well, it's not going to do us any good to just sit here and watch him. He'll probably sleep through the night after that, so I'm going to head back." Said Armin, as he neatly folded the used towels so that any filth was contained on the inside.

"I might stay a bit longer to be honest."

"Suit yourself, but I'd prefer to sleep in an actual bed."

Armin gathered his things, being sure to fold the top part of his boots over the soiled ends, as well as to grab a pair of slippers from the front of the tent, before he began to walk outwards, towards the barracks.

Just before he exited, he heard his name being called and turned back to see Mikasa waving at him.

"Have a good sleep!" She called.

"Yeah, you too."

And with that, he turned back to enter the barracks and finally get some rest.


	7. A Big Problem

When Eren awoke again, he immediately noticed two things.

One, he was certainly _not _in the barracks, because holy fuck, his head was laying on one of the softest pillows he'd ever felt, the blanket draped across him actually felt warm, and, best of all, he hadn't awoken with a back aching like he'd suddenly become fifty years older.

Two, his head was pounding while his eyes felt crusty and sore, a feeling he hadn't felt since the refugee camps. It took him a second to piece together exactly why he felt as if he'd been crying for hours, and what could have happened to make him feel this way before the previous day's events came rushing back to him.

He shot up, eyes wide as he remembered how he'd broken down over something as stupid as throwing up on Armin's shoes, and while Eren knew exactly why he'd been so upset, it must have looked really fucking pathetic to Armin.

"Shit…" Eren moaned as he lowered his heads into his hands. He'd wanted to make them feel better, not worse!

And after Annie had covered for him so nicely too…

"Hey, sleeping beauty, you done yet?"

Speaking of Annie, she was sitting cross-legged where Armin had been last night, and while the area looked clean, Eren wasn't sure whether he should inform her that he had puked all over the area in front of her last night.

He decided against it, more for his own sanity than her's

"Uhm…yeah, I'm up." Eren responded, slowly lifting his head from his hands. "What are you doing here?"

Annie uncrossed her legs as she used the arms of the chair to pull her up to her feet. "Waiting for you to wake up. I thought that much was obvious."

Ok, rude.

"Yeah, I get that, but why you specifically? Where's Mikasa and Armin?"

"They've still got training for today, but you better thank your lucky stars that it was me."

"Why?" Eren asked. "No offense, but it's not like we're best friends or anything."

"None taken." She responded as she reached into the drawer of the nightstand next to her and pulled out a thermometer. "Mrs. Servott is out for today, so she told us that someone had to stay with you and take your temp every few hours."

Eren paled as he heard this. Holy shit, yeah, that could have been really bad.

"Yeah, I don't think you need me to tell you why that could've been bad."

"So you've just been, what, writing down fake temperatures?"

She gave an amused huff before shrugging and saying, "Basically."

"Huh."

The more Eren thought about it, the more it made sense. Due to their shared interest and abilities, anything that threatened to have Eren discovered would be a massive and unnecessary risk for her as well, considering the fact that she probably had many of the same weird features that he possessed.

That would make it extremely easy for anyone trying to find other shifters, so it was probably in her best interest to make sure that he stayed undiscovered.

Eren decided to file that information away for later.

"So are you going to tell me what was up with the little stunt you pulled at dinner yesterday?" Asked Annie, breaking the silence.

"Uh, I guess I was sick?" Eren offered.

"Nope, not a possibility."

"Well, uhhhhh…wait, does that mean we can't get sick?"

Annie just sighed and put her head in her hands. Sweet fucking christ, trying to get answers from this boy was like pulling teeth.

"No, you can still get sick, but it'd have to be a really bad disease, or infection, or infection, or whatever to take us down."

"Take us down in the sense that we couldn't fight, or like, straight up kill us?"

"Couldn't fight." Annie supplied. "I don't really think anything other than taking off your head or nape could kill you."

"Ah, I see." Eren replied, looking thoughtful. So the similarities between a titan shifter and a titan itself really did run deep. "So could-"

"Before you ask another question, titan shifters, outside of their titans, are basically just normal humans but stronger and more resilient."

Huh. Well, when he really thought about it, it made sense. After all, titans were just like strong, giant, naked people, so it'd make sense for a shifter to just have those last two attributes taken away.

"So what I'm hearing is that if I challenged Reiner to an arm wrestling competition, I'd win." Eren replied after a moment.

"No, you wouldn't he-" Annie took a deep calming breath before she continued. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."

Eren just shrugged and said, "Hey, I thought it was a fair question."

"Eren, I swear to whatever's holy that if you keep this up I'm gonna rescind my offer before I even tell it to you."

Now that got his attention. "Offer? What offer?"

"Well, I was thinking about that little lie that I told your friends-"

Eren flinched a bit at the mention of the lie.

"-and I thought, why not make it a reality?"

"What?"

Annie sighed as she got up and grabbed her jacket off of the coat rack. "I'm offering to train you, not just in your abilities, but in your fighting skills in general."

She turned around to gauge Eren's reaction, and was not surprised in the least when she saw him staring up at her with bright eyes.

"Wait, wait, you'll-you'll really teach me how to fight?" He asked excitedly.

Annie just gave him a soft smile and nodded.

"And how to use my abilities?"

She nodded once more, but was starting to realize that this would probably be how he responded to every bit of vague information she gave

"And-"

"I'll teach you whatever you want to know." She responded dismissively.

Eren jumped out of his bed and ran towards where his clothes from the previous day had been resting, pushing past Annie in the process. "Let's go then!"

Annie reached down and smacked him lightly on the back of the head. "Not now you idiot! You're supposed to be resting for the rest of the day."

"But I thought you said-"

"Not today, obviously." Annie huffed as she placed her hands on her hips. "If you're really that eager we can start tomorrow, but just relax and try not to be too much of an idiot today."

"Yes ma'am!"

The next day Eren was buzzing with excitement. He was going to get to train! He was going to find out more about what he could do, how he could help humanity! He knew that other people were taking notice, but he just couldn't help it. This was a chance of a lifetime and he wasn't going to squander it.

Both Armin and Mikasa had taken notice, but rather than being suspicious of anything, were simply happy that his mood was better, chalking up all the extra energy to a day of doing nothing.

Normal training passed by quicker than he'd ever remembered, and as soon as lunch came around he found himself almost choking in an attempt to finish.

After sputtering for a bit when some soup went down the wrong pipe Armin finally asked, "Is everything ok? You know you have plenty of time right?"

Eren just nodded as he continued to shovel soup into his mouth.

"Mhm, m'just tryin' to finish fast so I can get back to trainin'"

"You've got training with Annie today again then?" Mikasa asked while she fiddled with the end of her scarf.

"Mhmm"

She averted her eyes and continued, "I just don't get why you felt the need to lie about it, and still won't let us join in."

Eren stopped for a second, bread halfway to his mouth as he responded, "Because if you come, you'll just get into a fight with Annie while Armin picks everything apart."

"No I wouldn't." She responded while Armin looked at her in disbelief, "and plus, I could- I could train you y'know!"

Eren just snorted as he responded, "Like you tried to do when we were kids? Yeah, sorry I don't have the strength to throw a full grown man over my shoulder."

'Well, actually now with my shifter abilities I might be able to, but that's besides the point' Eren thought to himself.

Truth be told, he wasn't entirely sure, as trying to separate the strength he'd gained from training with freaky titan strength was near impossible, especially considering that he _still_ hadn't figured out exactly when he'd gained the abilities.

He still had vivid memories of small injuries that took forever to heal as a child, so he hadn't always had his abilities, but he also couldn't think of any event that would have suddenly caused him to gain them, which left a couple options.

Either he always had the ability to shift, and it was simply dormant throughout his childhood, he did _something _to obtain the ability on his own, or someone gave it to him at some point.

The first option was easily the most preferable to Eren, as the second two implied that he either had missing memories, or getting the ability to shift was much less noticeable of an event than Eren had previously assumed, both of which had horrifying implications.

"Then I simply need to teach you how to get stronger." Mikasa huffed, "Which is very difficult to do when you refuse to let me help you."

Eren was about to retort, but Armin decided to put his hand up and responded, "To be honest, I wouldn't be that eager either, considering that your idea of getting Eren stronger involves throwing him into a wall."

"And?" she asked as she raised her eyebrows.

"And I don't think that being thrown into a wall is gonna help me get stronger." Eren said dryly. "Besides, it was Annie who offered and I wasn't gonna be rude and turn her down."

Eren began to gather his plate and utensils as Mikasa mumbled "Yet you're ok with turning me down." under her breath.

Luckily Eren didn't seem to hear as he simply picked up his things and brought them over to the drop off station before walking over to talk with Annie.

After he was sure Eren was out of hearing range, Armin continued, "To be fair, Annie _has_ done a pretty good job of teaching him hand to hand combat."

Mikasa glared at him before responding, "Sure, but I still think it's weird that he won't let us come to train with him."

"That's because you would try to fight Annie the second Eren gets thrown to the ground."

"I would not."

Armin stared at her for a moment before reminding her, "Yet, you already have."

She opened her mouth to respond before submitting and shrinking back down in her seat.

"I get that you're concerned, believe me, I am too," Armin started, "but we can't keep hounding Eren over every little thing. I think it's stressing him out."

"You think that was what caused his outburst two days ago?"

"No clue." He admitted. "But I was just thinking that he seemed to get more stressed and defensive the more that we questioned him, even though it turned out to be something pretty small and something he would have probably told us about had we left it alone so…"

"So what?"

"So I think we might have been smothering him a bit."

Mikasa scrunched her face up in confusion. "Well, it's not like I've been treating him any different than I ever had before?"

"I know, I know, but he never really enjoyed all of the looking after him we did, even when it was necessary, so now that he's trying to get better at something, he might see us as trying to stop him from doing so."

"But he definitely knows that we just want the best for him, right?"

"I'm sure he does, but let's be real here, Eren hasn't always been the brightest lantern, so what we see as only trying to help, he may see as us trying to stop him."

"Are you calling him stupid?"

"To be honest, yeah kinda."

"I still don't see how he'd suddenly think that we're smothering him." She huffed.

Armin simply shrugged and responded, "I don't know why either, but he's always been kinda odd about this kind of thing, and we are getting kinda close to the end of training so…"

"So he thinks that he should be able to do everything on his own, and no longer needs too much assistance from other people." She finished with a deadpan tone.

"Bingo."

"Yet he still can't ever properly tighten his straps on his own." Mikasa muttered, which elicited a small laugh from Armin.

"You know how he is." Armin offered with a smile. "Besides, they both seem happy, so I don't really think there's that much of a reason to worry for now."

Mikasa still looked somewhat unconvinced, but eventually agreed. "I just hope that he doesn't get hurt…"

Fuck, if Eren asked one more stupid question Annie was gonna bash his skull in, fuck, why had she agreed to do this again?

Oh yeah, because he's probably the coordinate and she needed him to trust her enough that she could bring him back to her hometown without issue.

(and also because she felt bad for him because he didn't know anything about being a shifter and was literally hurting himself to find out more, and Eren was actually kind of a nice person who didn't deserve this-)

"Ok, ok, so hear me out. If I were to somehow fall off of the wall and shift _just _before I hit the ground-"

"Eren, I am literally this close to hitting you if you finish that fucking sentence." said Annie as she held her forefinger and thumb in a circle.

Eren looked at her, confused. "But your fingers are touching?"

"Exactly."

"So can I finish my question?"

"If you want to lose all of your teeth, yes."

Eren looked thoughtful for a moment and Annie wanted to cry. Holy shit, was he actually considering it? After a painstaking minute he seemed to decide against it, shaking his head before asking, "So if you kicked them out would my teeth grow back?"

"Well look at that, we're here, which means no more questions." Exclaimed Annie as she threw her arms out to display a wide clearing.

The first thing that Eren noticed was that each of the trees on the edge of the clearing had large raw patches, as if someone had spent hours meticulously pulling the bark off of the edges. These trees also had all of the brush that he'd normally expect to crowd the roots pulled away, leaving a clear area at the base, save for a few stray leaves and twigs.

The second thing he noticed was that Annie now had a knife, a real knife, not one of the fake ones that they were normally given for fight training, and holy shit was she much more intimidating with one.

"If I may ask," Eren stated calmly, now much more fearful of the repercussions of asking unnecessary questions, "why exactly do you have a knife?"

She glanced down at the knife held loosely within her right hand, then back up to Eren. "Why, are you going to report me to the commander?"

"No, I've got my own I just-"

"Good, because we're going to be doing some actual fight training."

Walls, Eren was just getting more and more confused by the minute. "So why do you have the knife then?"

"Let me play out a scenario for you real quick." Annie sighed. "Somebody is trying to kidnap you, and you don't have any weapons. Do you think that they'll see this and think, 'oh this boy doesn't have any weapons, let me be nice and put mine down to make it equal'?"

"Well, no-"

"Exactly. They're going to see that and think that they have an advantage." she said as she took upon a fighting stance. "I'm trying to teach you how to take that away from them."

"Yes, but isn't that what they're teaching us in normal training? Why do we need a real knife?" Eren asked as Annie dropped her stance.

"Because I've watched you grab that stupid rubber knife more times than I can count, so you're ovbiously not treating it as if it were real. Think of this as incentive."

"But if I heal a knife to the hand shouldn't be that big a deal, right?"

Annie almost, _almost_ brought her hands to her face to rub her temples before remembering that she did in fact have a big ass knife still in her right hand, and even then she still considered doing it.

Fuck this boy is stupid.

"Are you trying to get yourself caught?" She asked incredulously.

"No, but I thought you were gonna teach me more about being a shifter, not necessarily how to fight against someone with a knife."

"I _am_ trying to teach you how to be a shifter," She exclaimed, "and you wanna know the first thing you gotta learn before anything else?" Eren nodded. "You learn how to not get caught."

Although it wasn't a thought that came up often, Annie occasionally wished she had the ability to see through things, a wish that was very strong at the moment as she could almost feel the gears turning in Eren's head.

"And one of the quickest ways to get caught is to do something stupid and have someone see that you heal much quicker than a normal human."

His eyes widened as he realized this. Oh fuck, it didn't matter if he could use his (admittedly kinda cool) titan strength to overpower a single opponent if he ended up steaming some wounds shut afterwards, as it wasn't like he could fight the entire government.

Or could he?

Deciding that that line of thought was swiftly veering into what Armin liked to call 'bad idea territory', Eren decided to shelve it for a rainy day.

"So you're going to teach me how to fight without getting injured?" He asked with much hesitation.

"Oh not just teach," she replied, twirling the knife in her hand, "I'm going to drill it into your head until it's the only way you know how to fight."

She casually tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she stated, "First we're going to start with grappling." and suddenly Eren had a very bad feeling.

"Ok, _ok,_ I give, I give!" Eren screamed as he was pinned to the ground, the knife held in Annie hands only centimeters from his left eye.

He breathed a sigh of relief as she let go of his wrists and removed the knife from the general vicinity of his face, before pushing himself up slowly, using his arms to brace himself. Even though he knew it wouldn't last, the burning in his muscles felt like it'd stay there for days and all he wanted to do in the moment was lay down and take a solid nap.

"You ok down there sleeping beauty?" Asked Annie as she extended a hand to Eren, at which point he noticed that he'd actually had his eyes closed for a minute.

Ignoring the hand offered to him, he pushed himself up and replied, "Yeah, I'm totally good, but holy shit you hit like a truck." Sweet Sina, he was glad that all the bruises he had would heal up before he got back to camp, because that would have been a really uncomfortable conversation.

"And you hit like a little bitch." She responded nonchalantly.

"Oh shut up. Not all of us can be as freakishly strong as you or Mikasa."

"Funny, because from what I've seen your issues here aren't due to strength."

"Huh?" Eren asked, confused. That was mostly what they were out here training for right? That and technique?

"You seem to be lacking in motivation." Annie answered, "Although I do think that you're giving an honest effort when you try to grab me, once you fail, or I start to pin you, you just kinda give up."

"That's because you're too fucking strong to escape from."

"Except I've been giving you some pretty easy chances to break away and you've just been throwing them away." She began to point the knife at him and asked. "If someone was truly trying to kill you, would you do this? Just give up the second something gets too hard?"

"No, I'd fight-"

"Really? Because from what I'm seeing it looks like you'd just let yourself be killed."

She could see Eren start to fume in front of her, so it was obvious she was hitting something right on the nose, even if she wasn't sure what. Now to finish him off.

"I mean, you talk all this shit about killing titans, but let's face it, they're bigger and stronger than you could ever hope to be, and if you give up every time something is stronger than you then-"

"_Shut up_!" Eren screamed as he launched himself at her, once more attempting to grapple for the knife, but his movements were slow, predictable.

Annie easily sidestepped him as he stumbled forward. She grabbed his collar as he attempted to turn and pulled him over her shoulder to the ground. He briefly attempted to push himself up before Annie placed her foot squarely in the center of his chest, knocking the wind out of him in the process.

Even though he had absolutely zero leverage, he still attempted to pull her off of him, clawing at the thick leather of her boots and using his legs to push himself up, an attempt which was ruined by Annie simply leaning more into the foot that was on his chest. She could hear him wheezing as he still snarled at her, so she decided to simply stand there for a minute to let him collect his thoughts, to let him realize what he'd done.

"Are you done yet?" She asked coolly. "Got it all out of your system?"

"Get...get off me." He wheezed, obviously struggling to take in air. To be honest, Annie pitied him a bit at this point. He truly made for a pathetic sight, small reflexive tears bubbling at the corner of his eyes while bits of drool made its way down his chin, but it still seemed he hadn't learned his lesson.

"No, I don't think I will." She replied with a smile, "Because this is your first very important lesson that I want you to remember until the day you die." She leaned in closer to his face, placing more and more weight onto his chest as he groaned. "Rage will get you nowhere, so don't you fucking dare do that again."

She abruptly pulled back and watched Eren suck in a large breath of air, before rolling to his side and coughing. "What the fuck was that for?" he asked breathlessly while Annie simply continued to stare him down as if he were an idiot.

Although he probably deserved it in this case.

"You seem to be under the impression that letting rage guide you while you fight is a good strategy. I'm simply correcting that." She shrugged as she walked over to the knife that had been thrown in the struggle.

Eren glared at her. "Still you didn't have to absolutely obliterate my ribcage to do so."

"Wow, obliterate, that's a big word. Armin would be proud of you." She mocked while she watched Eren continue to fume out of the corner of her eye. Despite this, he still kept himself right where he was and decided against attacking her again.

Good.

That was good.

That meant that at the very least he was somewhat able to learn from his mistakes.

"Look I'm not here to torture you or anything, but for some reason the only way you seem to get things through your head is through brute force."

"Could've fooled me."

Annie sighed as she looked him over. While she had planned for this to be one of the first lessons she would teach him, it probably could have gone a bit smoother.

(She'd also made a bit of a mistake in thinking that Eren would be immediately motivated to do his best, therefore quickly see improvements and trust her more easily, not that she'd admit that.)

"Tell you what," Annie said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "Since you seem incapable of doing it yourself for now, I'll give you an incentive."

Eren looked almost offended at the assumption that he couldn't motivate himself starting with a, "I'm not-" before being silenced as Annie held up her pointer finger.

"Every time you are able to successfully complete a task I give you, I'll answer one of your questions, no matter how stupid."

Eren thought it over for a second. On one hand, he didn't really like the idea of someone else creating incentives for him, as he was plenty motivated on his own (as long as it was something directly related to titans), but on the other hand was the offer to get whatever he wanted to know answered for something that he'd already planned to do anyway.

In the end his curiosity won out over his pride as he replied, "Alright, I'm in."

She smiled viciously at him and said, "Ok then. Get ready because we're going to continue with grapples, and I hope for your sake that your performance is better than it was before."

Same thing again? That was fine by Eren, especially now that he had a clear motivation.

Besides, how awful could it be?

The answer to his previous question was apparently, pretty goddamn awful.

After being thrown over Annie's shoulder for the tenth time Eren had finally decided he'd had enough.

"Ok, ok, I'm done for today!" he cried as he threw his head back into the dirt. Walls, when Annie had previously told him that she had left plenty of opportunities for him to get free she must have been fucking lying, because no, there weren't any chances.

"Hmm, giving up again already?" She taunted, tossing the knife up and down in her hand.

Eren turned to glare at her before deciding that laying on the ground was much more comfortable than attempting to get up at the moment. "That's not going to work on me a second time."

"Shame." She called out as she moved away from him to pick up her jacket. "It would have been really funny trying to watch you grab me, as tired as you are."

He just huffed and continued to lay there for a minute, relishing in the cool breeze that flowed over his face before he was roughly yanked to his feet by his shirt collar.

"You can take a nap here if you'd like, but I think your friends would be a little upset if you weren't back by dinner." Annie pointed out, and while Eren had to agree, he really didn't want to get up.

He let his eyes close for a second, which must have been much longer than he'd originally thought because soon he was being roughly shaken awake and was dropped onto his knees.

Annie nudged him lightly in the back and said, "Look, I understand why you're tired, I would be too if I did nothing but get hit all day, but I'm not going to carry you all the way back to the barracks."

Even though the forest floor seemed to sway under his feet Eren pulled himself up and began to trail after Annie, simply focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, until something that she's said in her previous statement started to stick out to him.

"Wait," Eren asked, "does healing up a lot cause you to be really tired?"

Without even breaking a sweat she picked up her pace and replied, "get a successful grapple and you'll be able to know."

The only thing that stopped Eren from screaming was their proximity to camp.

Although he certainly didn't have very much fun after the first couple sessions, as time went on, Eren could actually see himself improving.

At first it'd just been things he expected, like better physical and mental stamina, as well as having a much easier time during normal everyday knife training with his peers, even if he'd previously had a lot of trouble defeating them. However he'd also noticed some unexpected improvements, like his accuracy during 3DMG training.

Even Jean had admitted that he was somewhat impressed with his improvements! (Even though he'd immediately back tracked afterwards, Eren still brought it up occasionally in smug conversation.)

And as he'd improved, Annie had upped the difficulty of what Eren had to accomplish as well, as she'd already been forced to answer a couple of Eren's questions, and was somewhat regretting making a deal to do so, as while it meant she no longer had to answer stupid 'what if' questions ever second of the day, now the questions he asked were much more meaningful.

He often asked questions that she either couldn't give or legitimately didn't know the answer to, both of which she would previously give an option for him to ask another question with, however after several questions which gave away far too much information for her liking, she'd taken that privilege away.

Which landed both of them where they were now, six months later.

"Eren, I've told you more times than you can count to _avoid_ the blade at all costs, not to shove your face directly into it." She admonished, as Eren wiped at a closing cut on his cheek.

"Sorry I just…see the goal right in front of me and," He stuck out his arms and mimed a grabbing motion at the air, "just go for it."

Annie stared back at him, unimpressed. "Yeah, I got that after the fifth time you got cut attempting to grab the knife."

"Sorry…"

"Don't be, the only person you're hurting right now is yourself, literally."

They stood in silence for a couple seconds, waiting for the cut on Eren's cheek to fully close, when Eren got a bit of a grin on his face.

"Although I did get hit," Eren started as he wiped the dried blood off of his face, "technically I did disarm you, which means you have to answer a question."

Annie stared at him for a second. Technically he was right, as she hadn't put in any sort of caveat a few days ago when she announced that the next part of training would be to attempt to disarm her, however it wasn't good to encourage any type of physical injury that could be seen healing.

But she would be the first to admit that he had been doing surprisingly well recently, so she decided to let him off easy.

"Ok, fine but-"

"How does a person get the ability to shift?" Eren asked suddenly, cutting her off.

Ohhhh boy, that was not a question she really wanted to answer. "First off, I'm going to finish my previous sentence, since it seemed to interrupt the beginning of yours."

Eren shrunk back a bit. "Sorry I just, I've been thinking about it ever since I realized that I can shift, and haven't been able to do anything anything about it because I keep forgetting-"

"As I was saying," She stated rather loudly, "asking a question this time is fine, but from now on to get something answered you must disarm me _without_ getting hurt."

She stared back down at Eren, just to make sure he'd been paying attention, as he'd certainly disregarded some things she'd said before because he'd been too focused on a previous question, but also to allow herself to think of a good answer to the question he'd asked.

Obviously, she couldn't tell him the truth, as it would simply lead to more questions that she was still trying to figure out herself-such as how the fuck had he gained the ability of the coordinate-but also because it could easily be brought up to question her motives later.

And with how things were playing out, she'd really need Eren to trust her for things to go smoothly.

But fuck, how the hell was she supposed to soften up the process of passing on a titan so that Eren wouldn't have any further questions or get upset over how he'd (presumably) gained his abilities.

And of course there was still the issue of her having literally no fucking clue how he'd gotten them either, as it seemed that all of those within the royal family were bigshots in the government on the godforasken island.

She'd entertained the idea that Eren secretly was a bigshot, a royal family member in hiding, but after watching him freak out over whether or not his eyebrows would grow back after Jean had accidentally set them on fire, she'd decided that no. No matter how good of an actor Eren could possibly be (and it seemed like he was a pretty fucking horrible one) there was no way he could pretend not to be a part of the royal family this well.

So she decided to tell him the most basic, watered down version she could think of. A version that was even more vague than what they'd told her when she was becoming a warrior and said, "Another shifter gives it to them." and Eren's face lit up like a goddamn lantern.

"Wait, really?" He asked as she nodded. "Holy shit, _holy shit_! That's kinda really cool but also really fucking scary."

She was about to ask exactly why, because that was kind of an odd conclusion to jump to before he continued with, "because y'know I'd thought that maybe I'd always had it, but it just didn't really surface until I was older, but it being given to you makes so much more sense."

Fuck.

_Fuck._

Saying he'd had it his whole life would have been so much simpler, holy shit, why didn't she think of that. Now he was just gonna continue to ask questions and jump to his own conclusions, which were admittedly, wrong most of the time, but still.

As Annie sat and stewed in her own thoughts, Eren continued on. "But I don't remember anything that was all that important being given to me except for-except for…"

Once Eren had fully trailed off and stopped talking Annie glanced over to him and noticed that he seemed to be...kind of distressed actually, which was vaguely alarming.

Although he hadn't shown any signs of remembering who he'd eaten, nor even when it'd happened, she'd always entertained the possibility that he'd remember at some point. She just prayed that it wasn't right now.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "You seem to be thinking pretty hard about something."

Eren ignored her for a second before snapping out of whatever thought he'd been in with a, "Oh, no, s' all good, I just…"

"You just what?"

"I dunno really." He responded noncommittally. "I was tryin' to think of when something important was given to me to see if I could pin down when I got the ability to shift, but all I can think of was when my father gave me this weird key."

"A key?"

"Yeah, it's on a rope and such with my civvies, but I can't really remember when he gave it to me, just that it was at some point after the breech."

"The fall of Maria breech?"

He stared at her like she had three heads for a second before asking, "What other fucking breech was there?"

"Hey, I haven't lived your life." She retorted as she put her hands up in surrender, "For all I know it could have been after your house got robbed."

He exhaled sharply before apologizing, "Sorry, I'm just…annoyed that I can't remember all that much about it. I mean it's probably not even related to shifting in the slightest, unless the power is given through keys."

She hummed as she entertained the thought for a minute. That would be an amusing (and much less bloody) way of passing on the power of the titans.

"Just to make sure," Eren asked as he placed a hand on his chin, "The power to shift isn't spread through keys, right?"

"No, definitely not."

"Hmmm." He hummed as he mulled it over. "So how does a person give another one the power to shift."

"Well, I think I've already been generous in answering two questions when I really should have only answered one, so if you want to know, good luck on disarming me."

"Fuck."

Although it'd been over two weeks since Annie had last promised to answer one of his questions, Eren had found himself unable to even touch the knife, unless he was on the receiving end of the blade.

Numerous times he'd been close, oh so close, with Annie at a disadvantage, pushing into a corner, but at the last minute she'd simply swipe the knife out in front of her, much faster than he could react to, and the exercise would be over.

The worst part was, it was always the same place she'd aim for, just a small slice below his left cheek. Once he'd noticed he thought that it'd be easy to avoid or deflect, as he always knew where the slice would be coming from, but she was just too damn quick.

By the time he was pulling back or ducking she'd have already made the incision and at that point grabbing the knife would be useless, as he was already guaranteed to not have a question answered.

(He'd still disarm her afterwards though, both to avoid the verbal lashing he'd gotten after the first time he gave up, and to still practice, as giving up after a tiny cut was not a great strategy against someone who wouldn't stop once that first cut was made.)

It also didn't help that no matter how long they continued to fight for, no matter how much he'd attempted to tire her out to make things easier for himself, she never seemed to get tired.

Walls, he'd even instigated a small fight between her and Mikasa in an attempt to make it a little easier on himself later in the day, but had only proceeded to get the most through ass-kicking of his life.

Which brought him to his current situation.

Even though their training session for today had just started, Eren was already frustrated beyond belief.

That's not to say he was doing poorly, per se, as he knew that he'd improved, and with what little time had passed today, he could see that he was getting closer to disarming Annie than he had within the past two weeks, but fuck he was so close!

He'd have a grip, then cut, he'd have her pinned to where he was absolutely certain she couldn't get him, then cut, he'd try to duck under where she was swinging the knife, but nope, still the same fucking cut on the same fucking cheek, and he was starting to get fucking mad.

So, he'd grudgingly admit that all of the events that followed were _probably_ his fault, however it would take quite a bit of convincing to get to that point.

Annie had been 'cornered' up against one of the many trees on the edge of the clearing, and he'd had one of his hands wrapped around her right wrist, though he knew from experience that she'd still be to get the knife to his cheek eventually, although totally stopping her wasn't his goal.

He saw her feet shift, as she moved her weight to her toes to start to push forward and then-there!

She began to push against the hand that had been holding her wrist back as she brought it closer to him, so he shot up, out of the crouch he'd been holding and pulled his head back, placing his cheek out of reach so he could easily wrench the knife out of Annie's hand once it came close to his face, a plan that should have worked perfectly, except for one thing.

Eren had forgotten that by pulling back with his hand still wrapped around Annie's wrist that he'd be pulling Annie along with him, and by placing his head out of rage, he'd basically placed his neck on display, but he was far too focused on his own goal, of simply pulling that knife out of Annie's hand to notice until the cold metal of the knife began to bite at his throat.

Then everything happened in a second.

He saw Annie's shocked face for a split second before a burst of light seemed to envelop the both of them, a burst of hot air smacking Eren in the face for a second, before everything went dark.

When he awoke again-which he hoped was only seconds-later the first thing that he noticed was that everything was much smaller, and by much smaller he means absolutely fucking tiny.

The trees that had previously towered over him now stood only a few meters above his line of sight, while Annie wasn't even in his immediate view. His arms and legs felt as if they were thick and swollen-which reminded him of a time when he was younger, more careless and willing to play around a wild wasps nest, getting stung until his hands seemed to mimic a water sack-and his head felt inordinately foggy.

Although it took a couple seconds to process he realized that this sudden height and feeling could only mean one thing, once it did, he was understandably freaked out. He jolted in place as he realized that oh fuck, Annie was still probably somewhere near him and if he moved there was a good chance that he would crush her, which he really,_ really _didn't want to do.

He tilted his head down to look for Annie and took in the sudden changes to his body at the same time.

Although he was unmistakably a titan, as what else is fifteen meters tall, human shaped and naked, there were some pretty distinct differences between him and what he'd seen of other titans, including the one he'd been in his dream.

For one, rather than sporting a bloated gut and massive limb deformity he seemed to be perfectly proportional, simply looking like a large, muscular human, minus the pointed nails which he now seemed to sport from his fingers.

Fuck this was bad.

And he couldn't find Annie.

Fuck this was really bad!

He refrained from moving, if only to make sure he didn't step on or harm anyone that could be nearby (although he sincerely hoped that it was only Annie) and focused on scanning the ground.

As he leaned forward, he could see hair move forward into his frame of vision, and now that he thought about it he could feel it over his ears and tickling the tops of his shoulders too, which meant that it must be significantly longer than it previously was.

He breifly wondered if that would be a trait that carried over to once he was outside of this titan body, and if his hair was included in things that would regenerate quickly, but that line of thought was quickly shelved as he heard a small noise coming from below him.

He continued to scan the ground for any sign of Annie, a yellow blur,_ anything_, but the ground just stayed a confusing blob, no matter how hard he focused.

He wrung his hands nervously, preparing to take a step backwards before-

"Hey!"

Eren froze in place.

The voice was faint, but certainly there, as if someone was yelling at him from across a field, but he still couldn't _see_ anybody, so he continued to look around, now scanning the low area between the trees when he heard it again.

"Hey I know you can hear me! I saw you stop!"

Ok, so somebody was definitely calling for him, and the more he listened, the more it sounded like Annie.

Taking a gamble, Eren decided to slowly crouch down, placing his weight into his heels and leaning backwards, as he'd heard the voice coming from in front of him.

As he lowered, a familiar blur of blonde slowly came into view-albeit much blurrier than he remembered-and soon became clear enough that yes, Annie was still standing right in front of him.

"Oh, good you can actually hear me." Said Annie as she casually tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "That's good because I wouldn't have believed you if you said you couldn't with those big ass ears."

What?

Eren brought his hands up to his ears, pushing back part of his hair in the process, and found that yeah, they actually were quite different.

They certainly were much longer, extending out from the top of his ears into sharp points. The way he imagined them reminded him of a fish's fins, as he could feel the steep end which led into a gentle slope downwards, eventually ending where he'd normally expect his ears to end.

Although it was certainly odd, the more Eren thought about it, the more it made sense. Even when he had been standing at full height, he'd been able to hear Annie shouting to him without much trouble, and could now hear her as if they were simply talking face to face.

And the more that he thought about it, the more he could hear.

He could hear the wind rustling the leaves around him, the scurrying of some small woodland creature as it moved within the brush, the shuffling of birds above him as they prepared to take flight. If he focused extremely hard, he could even hear faint shouting coming from the direction of camp, but couldn't really make anything of it.

"Ok Eren, I'm gonna need you to answer and do a few things real quick, you got that?" Annie asked from below him.

He nodded, the motion almost tipping him over as he struggled to keep his balance with how swollen and heavy everything felt.

He heard Annie chuckle at him as he regained his balance and turned his head down to glare at her, as this was certainly not a laughing matter but was only met with a, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Although he could hear her just fine and was almost certain that he'd normally be able to tell, for some reason he couldn't discern the answer to her question at all.

He could see that her arm was extended upwards towards him, her hand in a fist with at least one finger up, but couldn't determine how many or which fingers were up at all.

The image he saw was far too blurry, and while he probably could have gotten a bit closer to see more clearly, he already knew that he didn't exactly have the greatest balance in this form, so he decided against it.

"Are you just going to sit there and stare at me, or are you going to answer me?" Annie asked impatiently, placing her free hand on her hip.

Eren huffed, the action releasing a small cloud of steam before he tried to say, "I have no clue."

The key word there is tried, as the second he attempted to talk as he normally did, something seemed to fizz and pop in his brain, almost like a candle that hadn't been lit in far too long, and the only thing that came out of his mouth was an incoherent gurgle.

Annie stared back up at him, confused as he attempted to talk again, trying a variety of phrases, with each having a similar result. It didn't help that for some reason he was struggling to move his mouth and lips in a way to actually make the words somewhat coherent either.

As he continued to try, he noticed something else odd. He tried to shift his jaw forward to chew on his top lip, only to find that it was totally locked in place, both his top and bottom row of teeth touching rather than his top moving over them. He also felt a sort of breeze on his teeth, as if he'd left them exposed for far too long, but couldn't for the life of him figure out how to pull his lips back down.

He brought one of his hands up off of his knees and felt around where they should be on the front of his face, only to be met with smooth skin. The hand moved downwards and rather than being met with any sort of flesh extrusion, it simply found his teeth.

He continued to run his hands over the front of his face, starting just below his nose then moving downwards, because _holy shit_ he didn't have any lips!

That was weird, oooh that was really weird. He opened his mouth a few times and let his teeth clack together before Annie got his attention once more.

"I understand that this is probably a bit strange for you-" understatement of the century "-but we really need to focus on one thing right now. Getting you out of there."

Within the strangeness of the situation, the odd feeling of being shoved into another body, Eren had totally forgotten that to anybody else he'd just look like a normal titan.

With this realization, he began to panic.

From what Annie had said, it certainly sounded like there was a way she knew to get out of here, but Eren still had no clue what it was. He had no clue if it'd been painful, if it'd knock him out for hours afterwards, if it involved some sort of weird item that she had to go back to the barracks to get, leaving him alone, oh walls please don't leave him out here.

He was sure that Annie could see him get distressed as she called back up to him, "I don't know what you're freaking out about, but I'll let you know that getting out of there is pretty painless."

She then mumbled "most of the time." under her breath, and Eren was sure that he wasn't supposed to hear that, but fuck, he had and that was not comforting _at all._

"Ok, what you're gonna have to do is think about where your real body is-its located in the nape by the way-and think about pulling your head back, out of the titan." She explained, which was of almost no help to Eren, because what the fuck.

The two stared at each other in silence for a second before Annie sighed and placed a hand on her forehead. "Ok, what you're going to do is close your eyes."

Eren shut his eyes, suddenly feeling much more scared now that he was cut off from one of his main senses in a body he didn't know too well, but he could do this!

He would have to get out at some point, and if Annie said that this was how you did it, he was gonna trust her.

"Now you're going to pull your head back, Eren. Pull it back and push again the flesh as hard as you can, on the count of three."

Ok, fuck, this didn't sound like a good idea anymore.

"One!"

Eren took a deep breath, he could do this, he wasn't going to hit anything, everything was going to be fine.

"Two!"

Annie was much more experienced with this than he was, and had probably done this numerous times before. She knew what she was talking about.

"Three!"

And with that Eren pulled back as hard as he could, not exiting the titan, but rather slamming his head into the tree behind him hard enough that for a second, Annie was sure that he'd knock the tree over.

Eren began to reel from the pain, because holy shit that hurt like a bitch, what the fuck Annie, but that didn't last long as he picked his head up to glare at Annie…

Then promptly passed out.


	8. Is Titan Flesh Edible?

Although she probably should have expected it, Annie was still shocked once she saw the familiar glow of lightning crash around Eren as she was thrown to the side due to the intense burst of heat. She knew that no matter how close she was, Eren shifting wouldn't be able to cause any real damage to her, as it simply didn't produce enough heat or blast force to do anything other than knock her off balance and sweat a little bit, but it was still certainly uncomfortable.

As the mass of flesh began to twist and contort itself into shape, Annie began to quickly move around and scan the area, just to make sure that nobody else happened to be around or see. She knew from experience that unless you were inside a building or hidden within something tall enough, the bolt of lightning would be visible for miles, but that could be played off relatively easily if it happened to be visible.

What she was really worried about was whether these trees would be tall enough to fully hide Eren.

Aside from the colossal, the biggest titan she had seen after a shift was the beast titan, only seventeen meters tall, which was still taller than the previous holder by a small margin, but not a big deal. The real issue here was that she had no fucking clue how tall the coordinate was supposed to be.

She'd heard accounts in the past that had said it was as big a mile high, towering over all armies in sight and simply overwhelming them with sheer size rather than using any sort of special power. Yet she'd also seen drawings from history books of old which depicted it as a meek little thing, no bigger than five or so meters, according to its size in relation to humans, which left the lovely little range of so big Eren would be seen by every human within the walls and probably regarded as a demon (or god) for years to come, or so small that he could be kicked around by other titans.

Great.

She popped the small blade out of her ring and slid a small line across her thumb, just enough to draw blood, just in case.

Hopefully Eren had shifted due to his goal of trying to grab the knife, and not because he was focused on being angry at Annie, because she had no doubts that she could take Eren down-I mean, this was his first full shift after all, and she already kicked his ass during normal training, so unless his titan ended up being super fucking massive, it'd be like taking candy from a baby-but she did have doubts as to whether she could take Eren down silently.

As long as he had been calm when he shifted rather than in a blind rage, he shouldn't have too much trouble controlling his titan, but even then that could be sketchy.

And the last thing she needed is for the whole camp to come running just in time to see her ripping Eren out of a titan carcass.

She continued to stay on edge as the forming skull rose, up, up, until she started having trouble seeing the exact details of his face. As bones began to appear out of thin air, coagulating into an unrecognizable mess before separating to form a ribcage and arms. As muscle began to run over these bones, a livid red that was soon swallowed by familiar tan skin, disappearing wholly beneath the vast expanse that stretched upwards.

As the body continued to spiral towards the ground Annie became able to make out the small distinct bones that would become the ankle forming within the whirlwind of flesh and heat and breathed a sigh of relief. From where she stood it looked as if Eren's titan would end up being around fourteen or fifteen meters tall, still large for titan standards but a far cry from the mile high stories that she had heard.

She'd have to ask Eren and others later if they had any sort of myth or story about any such thing, very carefully of course.

Once the titan fully formed Annie stepped back into the clearing, still with the small cut across her thumb. Judging by the fact that Eren hadn't moved or roared it looked as if he was relatively in control at worst, and in full control at best, but she could be wrong.

From where she was she couldn't see the exact features of his face, as he seemed preoccupied with staring at his surroundings, for which Annie couldn't blame him.

She still remembered the first time she fully shifted, and although she had planned to shift and had been briefed on what it'd be like, nothing truly prepared her for the massive change in perspective that happened within a split second. It must have been even more disorienting for poor Eren who had no clue what a full shift would be like.

Watching him swivel his head back and forth a few times, she prepared to call out to him, placing her hands in front of her mouth to amplify the sound before Eren finally swung his head down to look at the ground and-woah.

Annie stopped for a second, somewhat stunned.

Eren's face was...gnarly was the only word coming to mind. She'd seen the large elf-like ears before, so while it was interesting that he had such an uncommon trait, it wasn't as shocking as the main feature of his face.

Set where his mouth and cheeks would normally be if he was still human was undeniably a mouth, but rather than holding a normal human shape it split off where the mouth should end into another row of teeth, just a bit higher than the previous row, creating a sort of lightning bolt effect, which she had to admit was kinda cool. It was something she'd never seen before, not even on the titan who's whole ability focused on their mouth.

He also seemed to lack any lips, which was a much less uncommon trait when it came to titan shifters, but still wasn't exactly common, so it was a little jarring to see.

That also meant he probably wouldn't be able to talk, which was...not the worst, but not ideal either considering the situation.

She watched as he continued to scan the area, wringing his hands nervously, and decided to take pity on him and test his hearing abilities simultaneously. "Hey." She started out, just at a normal speaking level. Although she was almost certain that he wouldn't be able to hear her from this far down at a normal level, it didn't hurt to try.

She waited for a minute or so, simply trying to see if he had heard her even a little but, but after watching him look over where she was a few times he decided to increase the volume.

"Hey!" She said a bit more forcefully this time, as if she were trying to get the attention of someone across from her in the loud mess hall. She still wasn't quite shouting, but it was fairly close, and _that _got a response.

Eren seemed to freeze in place for a second, and was now looking in the general area of where she was, but it was fairly obvious that he couldn't really see her. Yay for titan eyesight being absolutely abysmal.

"Hey I know you can hear me! I saw you stop!" She called out once more, at the same volume. Now Eren was pretty honed in on her location, as he stopped wringing his hands and simply stared down at where she was, his ears moving from being flat at his side to a more forefront position, which was probably instinctive so that he could hear her better.

To Annie it was...cute, in a way. Cute in the same way that a dog tilts its head towards its owner when it hears its name being called, but a bit out of place on a fifteen meter humanoid creature.

She watched calmly as he slowly, very slowly lowered himself to the ground, taking care to place the majority of his bulk behind him rather than in front to avoid getting closer to Annie. She could also tell the moment that she truly came into his line of sight as his eyes went from darting around her general area to focused directly on her and his pupils expanded to fill a good chunk of his iris.

'Kinda like a cat.' Annie thought as she took in the odd sight that was Eren's titan up close.

Well as close as she could get while he was crouched on the forest floor.

"Oh, good you can actually hear me." She told him as she continued to look him over. While his overall body plan looked generic for a shifter, man that face was odd! "That's good because I wouldn't have believed you if you said you couldn't with those big ass ears."

Annie watched in interest as he went up to feel his ears, realizing that he probably had no idea how his titan looked, as he'd most likely assumed that all titan shifters just look like those mindless beasts that roam outside the walls once shifted.

Maybe she'd make a quick visual representation of his face to show to him later. Just to freak him out.

After watching him tilt his head back and forth a few times, moving his ears back and forth in an attempt to hear something better she decided to mess with him a bit. "Ok Eren, I'm gonna need you to answer and do a few things real quick, you got that?" She asked, chuckling slightly as he almost tipped over from the force of his nod.

Yeah, it seemed he was certainly a bit disoriented from the size change.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

She held up three fingers and took a small bit of enjoyment in watching Eren attempt to squint and get a better view of her hand. She knew from experience that she would have to be much closer for him to even be able to make out the clear difference between her hand and fingers, as a titan's eyesight really did suck, but it was still pretty funny to watch him start to move forward ever so slightly in an attempt to get a better view, not wanting to tip over, but totally unable to answer her question from where he was.

"Are you just going to sit there and stare at me, or are you going to answer me?" She asked while pretending to be impatient, relishing in the knowledge that Eren would be totally unable to see her facial expressions from where he was.

Eren huffed, releasing a small cloud of steam-a trick that she had elected to _not _teach him in human form as Eren had the impulse control of a young child with a basket of eggs and would probably start repeating the trick regardless of much of a bad idea that was at any given time-and opened his mouth to respond.

Predictably producing a totally unintelligible sound.

Eren seemed to blink for a second before trying again.

Then again.

Then again.

Although he couldn't really see her, Annie simply watched the whole debacle with a small smile on her face. Eren kept trying to contort his face into different expressions, probably trying to wrangle his non-existent lips into saying words, and she almost wished that they had been by a lake so she could show him how silly he looked at the moment.

Watching him try to figure out what was going on, clacking his jaw open and closed a few times as he kept running his hands over his face, was endearing in its own sort of way. It was like watching a child discover something new, if that child was a fifteen meter monster who had the power to destroy civilizations with one command.

Still, Annie continued to stand there, observing with a familiar fondness. Really, one of these days she'd have to have Reiner and Bertholdt here as well to see Eren shift, as Reiner had had the same talking problem that Eren was currently facing when he first shifted and Bertholdt would probably just be terrified of Eren's face in general.

She'd have to set up a good time for that, especially if she wanted to get Reiner to shift in order to show each other the similarities, as they'd probably be too proud to admit it themselves.

It would definitely be hard to get a good time for both of them to shift though, especially Reiner, because he was, because he was…

Annie felt her blood run cold.

What the hell had she been thinking?

_What the hell had she been thinking _!?

Of course she couldn't have Reiner shift, fuck she shouldn't even have thought about letting Eren know that Reiner and Bertholdt knew that shifters existed, much less that those two were ones as well.

And what the fuck had she been thinking, becoming fond of the coordinate, something that could destroy her, her father, her hometown, everyone she ever loved and cared about on a simple whim. Something that she'd been specifically warned against falling for their charms before the start of her mission. Something that relied on people being complacent and trusting it to truly use the full rage of its power.

Fuck, when did she start thinking of Eren and the coordinate as two separate entities?

(The answer was far before she'd ever admit, as on a deep level Annie knew that she'd never really connected Eren to being the coordinate, and even as the titan stood her in the face, wasn't able to see it, because it wasn't the coordinate she'd been told, it was Eren. Eren who'd get into a stupid fight with Jean over the littlest of things, Eren who ran into trees with the 3DMG more than he'd ever admit, Eren who's first response to finding out he was a monster was to try and see how he could _protect _people-)

Christ, this was not good.

The longer she stood there watching Eren mess around in his titan form, the more complacent she got. The more she stopped thinking of Eren as the monster he really was and started thinking of him as that rage filled kid who cared a little bit too much for his friends but would never admit it.

So Annie steeled herself, stopped all that she had been doing and called out to Eren, saying something she should have said at the start of this whole debacle.

"I understand that this is probably a bit strange for you, but we really need to focus on one thing right now. Getting you out of there."

Amazing. Just amazing.

She told him to do one thing._ One thing _and he knocked himself out.

She told him to do something that she had literally never, _never _seen a shifter mess up and he decided to throw himself into the back of a tree and get knocked out while still in titan form.

And Annie didn't have her gear.

Fuck, this day was just becoming worse and worse.

As she continued to contemplate what she could possibly do in this situation she began to hear a familiar hissing as the rustling of leaves began to grow near, which could only mean one thing.

Other trainees were near, specifically other trainees who were making their way through the forest using 3DMG gear, which was both a blessing and a curse.

On one hand, if Annie was able to take out all of the people who were making their way here, she'd be able to quickly steal the gear and get Eren out, later apologizing and blaming her attacks on thinking they were bandits. But on the other hand, if she failed and they saw the big ass titan that was taking up the majority of the clearing, it wouldn't be hard for them to come to the conclusion that she was protecting this titan, where at best she'd get tried for treason and Eren would get off scott free, and at worst Eren would be discovered and they'd both be killed on the spot.

Neither possibilities for the second option seemed even somewhat favorable to Annie so she whipped around, moving the sound in order to figure out where the trainees would be coming from.

She quickly realized that they were coming in from around the same area that she entered the clearing, which meant that they probably previously knew of its existence, which was a really bad sign.

Fuck, now was not the time to panic.

Annie scaled the lowest tree over the entrance to the clearing, taking deep breaths in order to slow her breathing as she waited.

The noises continued to grow closer, and she could now make out a small bit of muffled talking, all of which sounded like she had been placed underwater. Her hands shook as she forced herself to stay still, as jumping early would only extrapolate the issue.

The voices drew closer, and closer, and then-

'There!' Annie thought as she jumped on top of a large blur, using her momentum to pull them to the group and wrap them in a chokehold. She used her leverage to force their head to face the ground, making sure that they had no possible way to see the sight that was in front of them and focused on applying intense pressure to the front and side of the person's neck, before she looked up and-

"Holy shit, Bertholdt?"

Bertholdt was simply standing in front of her, frozen in shock as he stared down at who she'd been choking, and with one quick glance she realized that it had been Reiner.

He fell to the floor with a gasp once she released him, and for a second Annie was relieved. In this case, Bertholdt and Reiner were the best possible people to be here-with their gear too!-yet she couldn't let go of how much of a disaster this situation could have been if Eren wasn't currently out of action.

"Why are you here!" She hissed as she stood up and dusted herself off.

"We um...well, we heard the blast all the way back from camp and um, though that you might need some help." Responded Bertholdt as he shifted from side to side nervously, and Annie realized that she couldn't really blame him all that much, as she probably would have done a similar thing, albeit much more stealthily.

It was also good to know that the flash of lightning probably hadn't been visible, as they would have certainly commented on it if it had been.

That didn't mean that she still wasn't going to be mad at them though.

"And what if Eren had been conscious right now?" She asked, "What if you guys had both decided to bolt in here while he was trying to work out his first shift without the knowledge that you two are fully aware of his abilities?"

Bertholdt decided to wisely keep his mouth shut while Reiner simply continued to dig his own grave. "Well, we could've just said that we heard it from you."

Annie pushed her thumbs into her temples as she laced her fingers across her forehead. God, why did she even try with this one. "Ok, you know what. Fine, nothing went wrong this time, but don't do that again." She chided, pulling her arms down to cross them in front of her chest. "But the only reason you're getting off easy this time is because I actually need you help."

"With what?"

"Unless you want to do it yourself, I'm gonna need one of you two to hand over your gear and swords so I can cut Eren out of there."

Reiner gave her a skeptical look. "Why not just wait for him to wake up then tell him how to get out?"

"Because that's how he got into this situation in the first place." She explained as she motioned for Reiner to start unbuckling his gear. When she got nothing but confused looks she decided to extrapolate with, "Told him to pull back and out and he threw himself into a tree."

They were both silent for a second before Reiner's face broke out into a smile then quickly dissolved into a small series of chuckles.

"Reiner, this is serious!" Cried Bertholdt as Reiner began to collapse into full out laughter. Annie looked away as a smile threatened to break out across her face, because it really was absurd, wasn't it.

The being that supposedly had enough power to be considered a god in some sense managed to knock himself out because he had followed her directions just a bit too literally.

Not only was it stupid, it was just so irrevocably _Eren _that she really couldn't help but chuckle along a bit as well. To be honest, she really should have expected something like this with how literally he had taken just about everything else that she had said, but what's in the past is in the past, so it wasn't like she could do anything about it now.

Once Reiner's laughter began to die down once more she asked, "So is one of you going to give me your gear or are you gonna cut him out yourself?"

"Don't worry, I got it, I got it." chuckled Reiner as he began to unbuckle and pull off the chest straps. "You should probably do it in case he wakes up for some reason so that we have some time to hide."

"Yeah, but you guys have to stay close by in case something happens to go wrong." she retorted as she helped unclip the sword holsters from Reiner's sides and placed them on the ground next to her."

"Like what?"

"Like in case I accidentally stab him and he decides to go batshit while I'm still trying to pull him out."

"You think that's a possibility?"

"I don't think it is, I _know _it is." Responded Annie as the 3DMG was handed over to her.

As she began to pull the gear on, she internally cursed Reiner for his height and size, as really, nothing was going to fit regardless of who had given her the gear as both of them wore several sizes bigger than what she was used to.

The back plate was far too large against her shoulders and actually restricted her movement, while she'd actually had to punch new holes in the leather for a good chunk of the straps. Even so, the sides of the gear which were unable to be tightened hung loose and were uncomfortable at her sides, making her seriously question whether she'd actually be able to use this gear or not.

Noting her hesitance, Bertholdt piped up, "Hey, if you um, don't feel comfortable or something, I can uh, take your place and cut him out."

"No it's fine." She responded as she placed the sword holsters back on their respective hooks. "Reiner had a point with what he said earlier, and besides I've already got it on, so what's the point of changing now?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it, it'll be fine." Reiner reassured him. "Besides, now that everyone's ready we can officially declare project 'snatch Eren part one' a go!"

"We are not calling it that."

"Woah." said Reiner as he stood underneath Eren to get a better look at his face while in titan form. "That's…"

"Gnarly, right?" Annie finished for him as she used his gear to pull herself up to where Eren's nape was exposed. They really were lucky that Eren had gone out sitting down with his head towards the ground, otherwise this would have been a much more difficult situation.

Not having much else to do at the moment, Reiner continued to study the titan's face, calling to Bertholdt, "Man you should really come over here! It's actually kinda rad!"

Bertholdt, who hadn't really moved since Annie had explained her whole plan, decided to politely decline, as no, he really had no interest in how terrifying a titan's face could possibly look.

"Really, you should come look though. It's not that bad I promise."

"Reiner, I really don't want to."

"Dude, it's like a cross between the jaw and beast titan minus the fur, it's kinda cool."

"I really don't-"

"Look, I really don't give a shit what the two of you want to do, because I'm ready to cut this boy out, and I'm doing it whether I have your help or not." Interrupted Annie as she shot out the hooks on the gear in order to anchor herself.

Normally, this really wouldn't have been a big deal, as she'd just simply cave out a space big enough for the torso and head to pull whoever was stuck out, and chop chop their limbs would be gone, but time constraints made this situation a hell of a lot harder. The unique facial markings would already take a bit of time to fade, which would push their arrival to camp back significantly, but the real issue would be getting trying to free his limbs while he was unconscious.

Due to it being his first shift there were two main possibilities. Either he was very lightly fused to his titan and getting him out would only be a matter of disconnecting his face and simply sliding his arms out, or he'd be so intertwined with the muscle and sinew even attempting to get his face free would be a nightmare, and knowing her luck it was probably the former.

She placed the tip of the sword just above where Eren's shoulder was hidden beneath the thick flesh and then pulled it downwards so that she could have a small bit of leverage when pulling it up through the skin. She really was thankful that Reiner and Bertholdt had showed up with their gear and swords as she knew from experience that this would have been a fucking nightmare without proper gear.

As she began to apply pressure the blade sunk into the skin, slicing with an ease that she had never known was possible with titan flesh before, although it certainly made sense now that she really thought about it. The titan dummies that were always used during training didn't seem to resist these blades much either, but she had just chalked that up to the material being soft.

She continued to push the blade forward, the flesh releasing a soft hiss as it separated to reveal the muscle and sinew beneath, and moved it in an arc around where Eren's head should be, ending just above his left shoulder.

Now for the unpleasant part.

Rolling up the sleeves of her sweatshirt, she briefly contemplated why she ever thought that a cream colored sweatshirt would be the best thing to wear for training, and jammed her fingers into the top of the arc, feeling backwards for a cavity.

Once she found what she was looking for she continued to push into the cavity, separating it from the surrounding skin until she could properly grip the flesh, which was much harder than it sounded.

Trying to hold onto titan flesh was like trying to grip warm raw beef, and felt just about the same, which wasn't exactly a feeling that Annie would describe as pleasant.

Once she felt she had a good grip she placed her feet from under her and ripped the flesh upwards, not only revealing Eren's head but also peeling it off of the majority of his torso.

Sort of like the world's biggest hangnail.

Annie wanted to gag at the imagery but instead focused on slicing off the piece of skin and throwing it down at the two boys who were now relaxing on the ground, paying minimal attention.

Well, down to may not have been the best description of her actions, as in reality once she saw that both Reiner and Bertholdt had stopped paying attention she lobbed the slab of meat directly at the two, actually succeeding to hit Reiner in the back. (Which she secretly thought was kind of impressive)

"Yo, what the fuck was that for!" Yelled Reiner as he wiped titan blood and juices off of his face and kicked the slab away from himself. That really had been a good throw.

Annie just smirked to herself and responded, "Oh, sorry, I was under the impression that you were paying attention in case anything went wrong and would be able to catch it. My bad."

"Why the fuck would I want to catch a big ass chunk of titan meat?" Asked Reiner, but Annie was already ignoring him in favor of continuing to get Eren out.

From what she could currently see, it looked like his arms and and legs were completely enveloped within the titan muscle, but his torso was relatively clear, which was honestly better than she had been expecting.

Once more she placed the tip of her sword into the flesh, this time around where his arms would be, and shoved the blade in with much more force. Using a similar maneuver to what she'd done for the face, Annie made quick cutouts around both of Eren's arms, but didn't make an attempt to pull anything out.

Instead she crouched down in front of his head and began to wriggle her hands into the sides of her first cut, pushing them under Eren's torso and placing a hand on each shoulder. With one swift motion she yanked his torso up, using her legs to brace herself and provide more lift, until she felt something give and his arms were pulled (mostly) from their fleshy prison.

Although she was standing on the very tops of her toes, due to how much taller Eren was than her, she was only able to dislodge his arms, which left his feet very much still stuck in the flesh of the titan.

Annie took the chance to check Eren's face, and yup, as she suspected the boy was out cold, and probably would be for the next half hour or so, which was really good because she certainly was not going to be the one dragging him back to camp.

With one hand still holding up Eren's shoulders, she used her free hand to grip the blade that had been left sticking out of the titan's flesh to disconnect the tendrils of muscle and sinew that still stuck to Eren's face before she carefully placed him back where he had been laying a minute prior.

Now to deal with the legs.

Before she began to cut anything, Annie retracted the anchors of her gear that had previously been embedded within the titan's flesh in favor of relocating them to the tree in front of her so that once Eren's titan started disintegrating she wasn't left falling through the air.

Once more, she placed the tip of her sword into the hot flesh and began to carve out an area for his legs, an action that was becoming horrifically repetitive, and called out to Reiner.

"I'm about to bring him down, can you grab him?"

"I got you!" he called back as Annie prepared to wrench Eren free of his fleshy prison.

Well, mostly free.

The only problem with cutting him out this way, rather than just taking off the limbs and leaving the important bits, was that no matter how close she cut there would still be large chunks of muscle attached to his arms and lower half that they'd have to peel off manually.

And that did not sound like a fun time.

Again, she placed her hands underneath Eren's chest and pulled him upwards, but this time, once Eren was up high enough out of the cavity, she placed both of her hands underneath his arms and pulled.

She was knocked back a bit as he pulled free with a squelch and a hot burst of steam smacked her in the face.

God, he was so much heavier now that he was dead weight and she wasn't trying to throw him.

Once the titan corpse had disintegrated enough, she finally released the lock mechanisms and slowly slid down the tree to the ground, with Eren still prone in her grasp. After a few seconds her feet touched the soft ground and she not so gently dropped Eren onto what she hoped was a relatively soft landing.

Reiner came jogging over and asked, "So how long do you think we'll be waiting here for him to wake up?"

Annie gave him a dirty look as she began to unclip and pull off Reiner's gear. "We're not going to wait for him to wake up, we're gonna wait for those marks to disappear from his face and carry him back to camp."

"But isn't he like, almost a hundred and forty pounds?"

"That's not my problem, because I'm not gonna be the one carrying him."

By the time Reiner had re-geared up, the majority of the markings had disappeared from Eren's face and Annie and Bertholdt had been able to peel away the majority of the flesh that had been stuck to Eren's arms and legs, making a grotesque pile of meat that quickly steamed away once it hit the ground.

"I just don't get why you insist on me carrying him back to camp." Reiner complained as he began to lift Eren off of the ground, throwing him over his shoulder in the process. "I mean, if we just wait he'll probably wake up in like, ten minutes or so."

At this point Bertholdt was actually the one to speak up, reminding him, "Um, I think she has the right idea, because, um, remember the first time you shifted? It took you, uh, quite a while to wake up afterwards."

Reiner frowned. "Well yeah, but I don't see the problem in waiting for a little bit."

"Yeah, because I'd love to get my ass verbally handed to me by Armin and Mikasa for bringing Eren back far past dinner." Annie replied sarcastically. "You've already got him in the air, and it's only a fifteen minute walk back to camp. Switch with Bertholdt if you're really that weak."

"I'm not weak, I just don't see the reason why _I'm _supposed to be the one carrying him!"

"Oh yeah?" she smirked, "That sounds like something someone who is weak would say."

Bertholdt just sighed at the display. What Annie was doing would have been obvious to anybody else-except maybe Eren-but unfortunately Reiner seemed to have left his braincells in his bunk today, because he accepted the challenge.

Then really began to regret it after five minutes of walking.

"Fuck, why is he so heavy? I feel like he was lying when he said he was a hundred and forty." Complained Reiner as he shifted from carrying Eren over his shoulder to holding him in his arms, and Annie had to bite back a laugh at the sight.

Eren wasn't exactly a small person, as he was taller than a good chunk of the camp, but he certainly wasn't bulky either, so he was absolutely dwarfed by Reiner, something that was made all too obvious by the way he was being carried at the moment.

"How's your princess doing over there anyway?" she asked as she pushed through a small bit out brush to make their walk back to camp quicker.

"That's not funny." he retorted, "and I swear to god I will smack him awake if he's not up by the time we get to camp-"

The three paused as a groan came from Reiner's arms.

Huh. Speak of the devil.

"Holy shit, I feel like I just got smacked in the face by one of those titan cutouts." Eren exclaimed as he grabbed his head. "How long was I out for?"

"Maybe forty minutes or so." Replied Annie, and then Eren realized about three things at once.

First, he (they?) were moving, as he could feel himself being rocked up and down and hear the soft crunch of leaves underneath at least one person's feet. Second, he was being held by someone and it sure as hell wasn't Annie because her voice had been fairly distant when she'd responded to him. Third, he was being held bridal style, which should have been fairly embarrassing, but he was just so tired, and if he was being honest with himself, being carried this way was much more comfortable than any other way he'd been carried before.

Wait.

His mind rolled back to the second realization he'd had as his eyes shot open. If it wasn't Annie carrying him (and it couldn't be, as whoever was holding him was much bigger and more muscular than Annie. Mikasa maybe?) then who the hell was it?

As he craned his neck to look up he was met with Reiner who was currently glaring back down at him and squeaked (literally squeaked!) as he rolled out of Reiner's arms and onto the hard ground, narrowly missing a thorn bush.

"You ok over there man?" Reiner asked as Eren quickly scrambled to his feet and brushed himself off.

"Yes, yes, I'm totally good." Eren responded as he flushed a bright red. "Everything is fine."

"Well that's nice to know, because you had us all worried with how long you decided to pass out there." Annie told him as she started to walk towards the camp again, deciding that Eren seemed ok enough to walk the rest of the way.

"Oh, I'm sorry." he apologized as he started up a slow walk next to Reiner. "Wait, we? How long has Reiner-" he paused for a second as he realized that Bertholdt was with them as well, which he probably should have expected, "-have Reiner and Bertholdt been here?"

Bertholdt opened his mouth to respond before Eren seemed to have a sort of revelation and quickly put out a, "Not that I'm really worried about anything, but I'd feel kinda bad if you guys just had to wait around just for me to be unconscious the entire time, and I hope you weren't waiting-"

"Don't worry about it man, Annie told us about how you got knocked out so we actually weren't expecting you to wake up for a while." Reiner said, cutting him off with a wave of the hand and Eren's blood froze.

Did that mean that they saw everything? Did that mean they were ok with it?

That couldn't be right.

Both of those two were much too calm to have just found out that one or more of their fellow trainees was a monster that could shift into a titan, and couldn't even really control it all that well if his previous shift was anything to go off of.

But what if they were simply pretending for Annie's sake?

It wasn't exactly a secret among the camp that those three were close, and while according to Annie the other two had no clue that titan shifters even existed, it wasn't impossible that they were simply being kind to him now because Annie was here, and to possibly hold his trust until they got to someone they could report him to.

But then why did they seem so casual about it? They acted if hearing about how one of your fellow cadets wasn't as human as they first suspected was an everyday activity and nothing to really be worried about.

Fuck, obviously Annie wouldn't have straight up told them what happened unprompted, which must have meant that they saw something explainable, which left the question of what. What exactly did they see?

He was just about to ask those two exactly what they'd seen before Annie piped up and informed him, "Yeah, sorry about that. I know that it was embarrassing enough to miss a grab and slam yourself into a tree, but I figured that your dignity would recover."

Just out of Eren's sight, she shot a glare to Reiner to _keep quiet _as she knew that neither Reiner nor Eren really had the ability to be subtle, but holy shit, Eren had only been awake for five minutes and Reiner was already about to give everything away.

Meanwhile, Eren was busy praising the walls that Annie was good at lying, because he really didn't know what he'd do without her.

"Ah, yeah, that's a bit embarrassing. Sorry that you guys ended up coming all the way out here just to learn that I did something stupid again." Said Eren as he scratched the back of his head.

Really, he did feel bad. They probably came all the way out there for something much more important than getting roped into carrying his unconscious self back to camp.

What had they been doing all the way out there with their gear anyway?

Eren began to open his mouth to ask, but before he could he heard his name being called from someplace just ahead, within the camp.

Turning forward he saw that it was Armin, waving a hand to flag him down with Mikasa by his side. At this display he moved onto the tops of his toes and gave a wave as both Armin and Mikasa strode over to the group.

"Well isn't this a familiar scene?" Asked Armin jokingly. "Are you sure you're not replacing us with these three?"

"Ah, no I promise." Eren reassured, mostly due to Mikasa's hurt look at the possibility of them being replaced.

"Huh, this really is the second time something like this has happened, isn't it?" Reiner mused, although this time they had known exactly where they were going to find Eren and didn't simply find him by chance.

They also hadn't found him in an indecent state of undress by a river this time, something that Reiner both regretted and didn't that he had never really asked about.

Maybe Annie would know.

"Yeah, and you don't have to meet up with me every time I walk back from training y'know? I'll find you guys at some point." Eren chided as he stepped a little further out of the forest, effectively putting himself between Reiner and Armin.

"I know, I was just worried because there was this loud noise and burst of light from the forest, and then those two started panicking and getting on their gear, so my brain immediately went to the worst possible solution." Armin admitted as he pointed at Bertholdt and Reiner, who suddenly wished that they were somewhere else.

This had been a small bit of information that they, ehem, neglected to tell Annie, as neither of them really thought that it would come up once they figured out what had been going on.

"Actually that reminds me of something I meant to ask when we were walking back." Eren said as he whipped around to face the two. "Why were you guys out there with your gear anyway?"

"Oh, we rushed off because we um, well, we...uh, well…" Reiner mumbled out before entirely trailing off, as Annie continued to glare daggers into his back just out of line of sight.

"We just got a little, uh worried." Bertholdt explained as he stepped in front of Reiner. "You guys heard the um, weird blast kinda thing right?"

"Yeah, but Annie and Eren train on the other side of the forest, so there wasn't any need to be worried about it." Mikasa said as she crossed her arms across her chest. It was the only reason that she hadn't gone out to investigate, because as much as she worried about Eren somehow getting hurt by anything and everything, she wasn't stupid enough to go running after him for something that had happened nowhere near where he was supposedly training.

Plus, trees fell all the time around camp. One that made a much larger sound upon following wasn't exactly at the top of her list of concerns.

Meanwhile Eren was busy thanking whatever he could that he actually followed Annie's advice for once and decided to lie about where their main training spot was.

According to her it was stupid to give their exact location, as it simply opened up more issues for if others decided that they would like to scope out their area and saw something that they weren't meant to.

Like most things, Eren had thought it fairly stupid and unnecessary at the time, but was now pretty thankful that someone actually had foresight.

Bertholdt began to shift uncomfortably under the stress of everyone listening to him but continued to explain, "um, well, I heard that sometimes they uh, shift areas so I got a little bit-well more like a lotta bit-concerned."

"So why did you guys think you'd need your gear?"

"Ah, well, it's just a bit um, faster and easier to transport the swords-" Bertholdt paused for a second to shuffle the hilts of the blades which were still stashed nicely in their containers "-just in case we uh, needed them...I mean we didn't really in the end, but it was uh, still good that we showed up."

Mikasa narrowed her eyes at this. "What do you mean it was good? Did something happen?"

Before Bertholdt exploded due to all of the attention directed on him, Annie stepped up and said, "Sorry to burst your bubble, but nothing really happened except for this dumbass throwing himself into a tree and clocking out for a solid bit of time."

Eren stared at Annie in shock for a second. She was really going to throw him under the bus like this? After all he's done to help her out...which actually wasn't all that much now that he thought about it.

Walls he really did usually make things worse, didn't he?

Although he thought that Mikasa would direct her anger at him, she didn't for some reason that was unfathomable to Eren, rather asking Annie, "So could you please tell me the events that led up to this in your 'training'? Just for future reference."

"Sure." Started Annie, not super happy about being challenged on the authenticity of her training, "We were practicing grabs, I pulled to the side, and he ran headfirst into the tree. Need me to explain anything else?"

"Just why you insist on 'training' in the forest when we have a lovely wide open space made specifically for training."

"I've told you this before. One, the leaves make everything a bit softer, which means less of a chance of getting hurt, and two I don't want to deal with gwakers and have people start thinking that I'm suddenly a personal trainer."

"Oh, less of a chance of getting hurt, but now I'm hearing that Eren knocked himself out on something that wouldn't be present in the training field."

At this point both girls were fuming, as this wasn't exactly the first time they'd had this argument but now that Eren had gotten 'hurt' Mikasa actually had some solid material to fire back with, and it was really starting to grate on Annie's nerves.

Armin, sensing that something pretty awful was probably about to happen decided to intervene, stating, "Oh wow, look at that, a whole ton of people just went into the mess hall, maybe we should head in for dinner."

Eren, in his infinite wisdom, shot him a confused look and said, "But I didn't see-" before Reiner quickly slapped a hand over his mouth.

While this diversion may have been enough to distract someone like Eren, neither Annie nor Mikasa were convinced that they actually needed to go somewhere, but both also recognized that now was not the time or place to fight as it would get them nowhere.

"Fine then, well discuss this more later." Mikasa stated with an eerie calm. "C'mon Eren, I bet that you're hungry."

"Ah, yeah, I guess." he said as he began to walk away with Mikasa and Armin giving a small wave as he turned to catch up to the two.

Meanwhile Reiner and Bertholdt breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the retreating backs of the trio before stepping forward themselves to head somewhere other than the edge of the forest before Annie pulled them back.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you guys decided to pull one the stupidest maneuvers I've ever seen, then decided not to tell me about it, because to be honest, I haven't been fully honest with you guys either, and I've got some stuff to explain."

Once they were a little farther back into the forest in order to avoid any eavesdroppers who may want to listen in, Annie began to explain.

"Although I've said that I've been gaining his trust and such, I no longer think that that's really the full truth." she started, nervously tucking a strand behind her ear.

The two boys stared at her in confusion.

"So are you saying that Eren doesn't trust you?"

"Not at all." She responded. "He certainly trusts me, but nowhere near the extent that we need in order for him to come with us without much fuss. Hell, I think it may have been impossible from the start to get that much from him."

"So what, are we not going to continue with our plan to grab him on his first expedition?" Reiner asked, scratching his head.

They'd gone over the plan in great detail before, deciding that their best option would simply be to use the chaos of a new mission along with some titan attracting powers in order to isolate Eren from the majority of the group, then have Annie swoop in claiming that she was carrying him to safety or to another chunk of the formation.

With this scenario, even if Eren decided he wanted to shift and fight, as long as he trusted Annie she could reliably drag him away from the group, where he would be relatively powerless and unable to fight off three or more shifters if he decided to resist.

Of course, the issue with this was trust. Eren wasn't the brightest bulb but if he decided that he didn't trust Annie and happened to have paid a little bit of attention to the formation plan and landscape, he could easily decide that he didn't want to follow them, and while the three were confident that they could overpower most, if not all of the survey corps, that still left the possibility of them simply taking Eren and running which wouldn't end up well.

So yeah, Eren trusting Annie was a pretty big fucking deal, and if she was having doubts neither Reiner nor Bertholdt were all that excited about the future mission that they had planned.

"No, we should keep that as backup, but I think we should bring back our previous plan. Our plan that we had to out the coordinate before we found out who it was, but tweaked a bit just to grab them instead."

"You can't mean-"

"Trost. I'm thinking that we should bring back the Trost plan."


	9. The Trost Incident Pt1

In all fairness, Eren had been having a pretty great day.

He'd finally 'graduated'-although he technically still wouldn't be an official soldier until the graduation ceremony-and in the top five no less!

He'd been somewhat blindsided by Annie's sudden decision to switch over to the military police, as it had been something they'd talked about quite a bit beforehand and after a bit of convincing had agreed that their powers would both be most useful and the least noticeable outside of the walls on large expeditions. Yet the day before graduation she'd come to him, claiming that the more she thought about it, the more she believed that it would simply be better if Eren went on expeditions while she stayed inside the walls.

She claimed that if something like the fall of Wall Maria happened again-and walls was that an awful thought-then it would be better to have their resources split. One shifter protecting the outside and one protecting the inside.

Personally, Eren thought that this was slight bullshit, as if they teamed up to effectively protect the outside of the walls the inside wouldn't even need protecting, but after a fairly long argument he'd conceded, as he realized that there was no way to convince her.

To him, it was the coward's way out.

He'd never thought of Annie as particularly cowardly before, hell he still didn't, but he could always tell that as much as she acted like she didn't care, at the end of the day she wanted to please people. She wanted them to be happy and proud of her.

Now this was hidden behind many,_ many_ layers of apathy, and it wasn't as if she was afraid of disappointing a person to get her own personal goals, but he could certainly see it in the way she'd ask people if she did a good job instructing them. How she'd spend far too much time investigating a topic that the commander would even somewhat praise her on. How she'd pick a fight with Mikasa over any comment that even implied that her training was ineffective.

It wasn't easy to see, but it was there.

So when Annie came to him, cool and collected on the outside but with a couple nervous ticks, telling him that she was no longer going to join the Survey Corps along with her explanation, the dots connected themselves.

'She probably doesn't trust herself enough.' He thought as he lay awake in his bunk, the day before graduation. 'She doesn't trust herself to be on the front line, to have all those people dependent on her.' and Eren really couldn't find it in himself to blame her that much.

But That didn't mean that he was at all happy with the decision.

Over the year or so that they had been training together she had become something more than a simple ally in the world of titan shifting, she'd become a genuine friend. Someone that he'd have no problem with telling his doubts and worries to, and due to the nature of them, probably the only person.

So suffice to say, he'd miss her quite a bit, but any lingering emotions he had about the whole issue were swallowed up by the pure joy he felt because _he was going to finally join the Survey Corps_!

Ever since the night of graduation he'd been somewhat lightheaded at the thought because, really, this was his childhood dream! This was what he'd been planning for years, and through all of the people who said he shouldn't do it, that he couldn't do it, he'd continued to work and work and finally he was here.

Standing atop the walls along with the members of the garrison to get a feel for what a job in that division would be like, and he'd by lying if standing up here didn't give him a new respect for the members of the garrison.

As he continued to help clear out a cannon, he peered over the side a bit, seeing all of the mindless titans scrape their blunt fingernails against the wall, and suddenly got a bit of vertigo.

He knew from experience that these titans were many meters high, even dwarfing many of the tallest buildings he'd known in Shingansina, yet from where he was they looked tiny. Almost harmless. As if he could simply reach out and squish them all between his fingers.

It was certainly a bit odd, and he could see how the Garrison could easily grow complacent in their positions, as it almost seemed unfathomable from here that these creatures could cause any type of damage to the massive city held within, but Eren knew better.

The vast expanse of destroyed cities ahead of him, an entire part of their civilization gone and lost at the hands and feet of the titans, the only thing left being partially destroyed houses and the faintest dusting of titan ash from when the cannons secured a lucky shot reminded him.

That being said, the view was still breathtaking, as he could see miles and miles in front of him as the vast land of buildings and forests filled his sight until they faded along with the clouds into the horizon, all blurring together.

It was...glorious, for a lack of a better word, and it made him sincerely regret the fact that he never had the chance to stand atop Wall Maria at the furthermost point of Shiganshina, as it would have allowed him to look out at the vast landscape that the walls had barred him from his whole life.

His birthright that had been taken within the grubby fingers of the titans and turned into nothing but bloodshed and destruction.

He'd see it one day though, a fleeting dream that had recently gained more and more traction as he realized the reality of his powers.

And so he continued to stare out into the horizon, simply admiring the view, the vast expanse that he'd be seeing up close and personal from now on, but for the moment upon a safe area, and Eren was reminded of a bird on a perch.

A small thing that he'd seen when he was younger, being sold by one of the many rich merchants when the expanded market came to town.

It had been a pretty little thing, all white feathers that would occasionally spike up into rich yellow plumage, forming what almost looked like a crown all made out of body and bone, and Eren would simply sit and stare at it. Stare until the merchant would see him and chase him off again, as he had no need for the poorer families of Shiganshina and was simply stopping by, and would listen to it speak.

This bird had everything it could want. Total protection, a pretty shelter, and a caretaker that would feed it and take care of it's every need only for one trade off, it's freedom.

Sometimes when one of the richer families came to buy he'd sit and watch as the man took the poor creature from its cage, placing it upon his arm or the stand to display its friendliness as it desperately flapped for freedom.

A child had once asked why the bird didn't just simply fly away, as it certainly had it within its abilities and would be free in no time, and the main explained that the bird's wings were clipped.

A small bit cut off that destroyed any chance it had to escape, but that wasn't the main reason it didn't try.

According to the man it had been raised sheltered all its life, never experiencing anything more than a slight discomfort, so when it tried to escape it would feel how hard it was to survive outside, how terrifying the world outside of its cage was and become scared. That way, no matter how far it wondered it would simply come running back to the safety of its owner, the one who provided everything for it. It's god, in a sense.

And so Eren thought, as he stood at the very edge of Wall Rose.

He thought about the bird, and humanity, and himself, stuck somewhere in the middle, currently unable to make much of a difference in anything, still bound to the expectations of his superiors.

And then he realized that this line of thoughts was leading straight into what Annie had dubbed 'Galaxy brain time' and decided that no, now, when he was standing right at the edge of a_ very_ deadly drop, was not the time to be getting distracted.

So he decided to stop being useless for a minute-but hey, it's not like he was the only one as he could very clearly see Mina and Daz doing almost the exact same thing he'd been doing a moment prior-and turned to pick up the lacquer that he had been tasked with placing on the cannons.

And then there was a burst of steam.

Not enough to knock him over, simply enough to ruffle his jacket a bit and move through his hair, and if not for its warmth Eren would have simply thought it to be a strong burst of wind.

What was more noticeable was the deafening silence, as if someone had suddenly plugged both of his ears with cotton. He didn't hear the whip of wind, the scratch of nails against the wall, the cry of birds as they suddenly evacuated their spots from the wall, and so he turned.

Only to come face to face with the colossal titan.

Eren wanted to scream.

It couldn't be here, it simply couldn't!

It had been less than five years since the attack, five years without any sign of a struggle, without even a single sighting of the colossal or the armored and now in a second one of them was here, standing right in front of him, standing right in front of the wall.

Yet before he could even get the first bit of his voice out a blast of steam hit him harder this time, scalding his face and burning his eyes in the process, which he instinctively covered as he fell.

Luckily for him, his eyes and face healed up fast enough that he was able to grasp for his gear, shooting his wires into the part of the wall in front of him and using them to slow his descent as he continued to fall until he came to a complete stop.

Fully uncovering his face, he looked around to see that many of his fellow cadets had had the same idea as him, many locked onto different parts of the wall as others continued to fall.

He also watched in horror as some people plummeted to their deaths, each spiraling downwards as the ground approached closer and closer, unable to do anything but watch.

Some didn't watch however, as Sasha unhooked her wires, and in a maneuver that Eren would never even dream of being able to do, used the wall to continually propel herself downwards, eventually being able to hook onto Samuel's foot, stopping his descent.

But he was only one of many.

All around the wall Eren could hear screaming, and whether it was from those still up above or the horrified onlookers below, he didn't know.

He glanced over to Connie to see if he had any plans of action, or even knew what they could possibly do in a situation like this, but was only met with his horrified face, mouth agape.

"Th-the wall." He stammered as he stared down at its base, and as Eren turned to see what Connie was looking at, his worst fears were confirmed.

Where the gate to Trost had originally been, there was now only a large gaping hole, an exact replica of the one that could probably still be found in Singanshina today. He could hear more screams of horror as more and more people came to the same conclusion that he had.

The titans were going to get in.

Oh walls, it was gonna be Shingansina all over again, but this time, they wouldn't be going down without a fight.

"4th Fixed Cannon Maintenance Squad, prepare for battle!" Eren barked as he shoved the spare blades he had on him into their empty hilts. "The target is right in front of us! This is our chance, don't let it get away!"

As he said this, he shot himself up to the top of the wall, over Connie and the others, where he could see that they weren't following him at all.

Whatever. That was expected.

As he reached the top he braced himself, not to look for an opening or strategise, as at the end of the day every titan was the same, but rather to get a look at its face. At the face of a monster who'd killed hundreds directly, but hundreds of thousands indirectly.

And for a moment, just a flash, as quick as could be, Eren almost thought it looked sad.

However, that didn't matter to him, as it was gone as quick as it came, and to be honest, Eren didn't care if this creature-this fucking monster had any emotions of thinking or what have you, because at the end of the day it still killed people.

It still destroyed his home, and now it was back to destroy more.

He saw the beast rear his arm back, preparing for a swipe that would turn him into little more than a sad pile of meat on the ground and jumped, shooting his wires into the top of the wall several feet to the creature's side, but not pulling himself down yet.

As he reoriented himself he noted with satisfaction that he had been right about at least one thing. Although the titan was big and powerful, by the walls it was slow, slow enough that it probably couldn't even pull itself back once a motion had started, which was probably why it hadn't stopped the trajectory of its arm as it continued on its path toward the wall.

Eren used his wires and a small bit of gas to blast himself behind the monster, hooks embedded in the flesh of it's shoulder where he could finally see the titan had been doing all along.

Its massive arm toppled the cannons as if they had been mere pebbles on the road and destroyed a good portion of the track along the top, so even if they had been able to get more cannons on such short notice there'd be no way to get them into position.

First aiming for the gate and now this? Fuck, it really was intelligent.

And as Eren realized this a thought burst into his head. He'd already somewhat assumed that the colossal and armored titan were at least vaguely intelligent, probably even working together if what happened _that_ day was anything to go by, but he'd never truly thought about what would happen if they really were shifters like him.

Did they know what they were doing? Did they once or even currently live within the walls? Would he cut open this creature's nape to find another human, walls would it be someone he knows?

But now was not the time for hesitance, so with a final shot and reel of wires aimed at the nape Eren threw himself forward, placing all of his human and inhuman strength into a single swing and-

A burst of steam hit him in the face once again, knocking him of balance for a second, but it certainly wasn't going to be the same as before. He could feel his gear straining against the force of keeping him back through the immense pressure, but he ignored it, instead forcing the cables to retract and pull him forward and-

Slicing into nothing.

Eren watched as the steam parted due to the force of his swing, only to reveal absolutely nothing behind it.

The colossal had vanished into nothing but footprints, the exact same as five years ago, only this time it actually answered some questions for Eren.

That appearance and that disappearing act...it was certainly a shifter who had done the job, as there would be no other way for something of that size to simply appear, plus its burst of steam before vanishing was similar to what Annie had described coming out of a titan to be like for those on the outside.

But that may honestly leave more questions than it answered.

The obvious of who and why were present, but more so Eren was curious about the how. How were they able to get here and shift without anyone noticing?

Annie had informed him a little while ago that yes, mindless titans did see him as just a normal human outside of his titan form, so they wouldn't have been able to hide among the titans, simply lying in wait for a time to transform, which really only left one option.

They'd come from inside the walls.

But that still left the who and even more they why. Why destroy your home, why create suffering for all those around you, and_ why did they stay to do it again?_

"Did you get em'?" He heard Thomas call hopefully from above him, and while Eren would have loved to have been able to say yes, he regretfully shook his head, instead replying, "No, it vanished. Just like five years ago."

He pulled himself up to the top of the wall, making eye contact with Thomas before they both went off to find the rest of their designated squad.

Although it had only taken five minutes or so for him and Thomas to find everyone, apparently that had been more than enough time for titans to infest a large part of the city as he could see them as far back as halfway through Trost, albeit in very sparse quantity.

Eren stared down at his hand.

He could shift and end a good part of this now, simply killing any titan that made its way in, but would it be worth it?

Walls, he wanted to kill them, kill them all so badly, but at the present moment he had a pretty high chance that shifting would simply get him killed before he could do much else, and that realization...kinda stung.

It didn't matter if he was on humanity's side, it didn't matter how overt he was in his desire to only kill titans, because as long as he looked similar to one, as long as he was the same size as one, to everyone else he'd effectively be the same as the beasts simply looking for human flesh.

Nobody would spare a glance to him and go 'oh gosh, that titan is friendly! We should keep it alive!' they'd just kill him on sight, regardless of what he did.

Furthermore he'd have to find a safe place to shift and exit even if he did survive, because the government sure as hell wouldn't take kindly to knowing that something that powerful is hiding within their midst.

"-ren, Eren, did you hear any of what I said?" Armin asked as he tapped Eren on the shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, um, I'm really sorry." Eren replied fiddling with the triggers of his gear. "Can you say it, but simpler this time?"

Armin sighed but after Mina agreed that she also needed a bit of a run down he explained, "So basically there's these three spots that are kinda hard for titans to get to right? So we're going to move over these areas, staying as close to the taller buildings as we can-" He pointed to the slightly larger houses that made up the district to their left, "-then end up around the supply tower, as it should provide our best leverage for attack along with any extra gas."

"So we'll be aiming for the larger towers and such as anchors?"

"Basically." Armin replied as he began click testing his gear to make sure that his cables wouldn't fail midair. "I chatted with Annie a small bit before I left, and it looks like her team is aiming for something similar, so we'll probably meet up with them along the way."

Annie had helped make this strategy?

Overall it made sense to Eren, but one of the biggest takeaways to him was how closed off the supply tower was from view.

Yes, it was high and a great vantage point for normal humans attacking titans, but it also made it ridiculously hard to see anybody who was behind or inside of any of the small buildings around it. The perfect place to shift.

Was that her plan? To create a good environment for shifting, beat the shit out of some titans then somehow shift back?

The only problem with that plan was that there'd be eyes on them from the moment that they started attacking titans, and they wouldn't really have a good place to escape to...unless she had a second part of the plan?

Fuck, it didn't matter at this point, as anything that really gave them a fighting chance would be useful, and to be honest, Eren would prefer that his team get safe before figuring out what the fuck they would be doing, as they were really just sitting ducks standing out here on the roof.

"So the plan's all set?" Eren asked as he prepared to launch his gear, only paying minimal attention to Armin's nod before calling out to the rest of the group, signaling the start of their self set mission.

After the initial launch, the group formed a V sort of shape, with Armin in the very center, trailing towards the back. With each twist and turn he barked orders of which way to go, which maneuver to make, and most importantly to_ avoid titan interaction at all costs._

Which Eren was not particularly happy with.

They had trained for years-years!-just to be able to fight titans, and now here they were, with the perfect opportunity in hand simply throwing it away so that they could make it to the supply tower a slight bit faster.

To be honest, even with how the titans had been touted as an unbeatable force, Eren couldn't help but feel a bit underwhelmed. Almost all of the ones he'd seen so far-and holy shit, weren't they not supposed to find many along this route?-were dumb and slow moving, barely giving a heads up before the team zipped on by, far to fast to be caught by gigantic hands.

Which brought Eren to his other realization, and something Armin had probably realized long before he did.

The taller buildings weren't acting as barriers for the large titans, rather they were acting as chokeholds where the titans could see them far before they could see the titans.

More than once they'd barely avoided a titan that had simply been crouched, waiting for them behind a corner that they couldn't see around, but there was nothing else they could do.

The amount of large buildings within the area of Trost they were currently in was massive, and it would require heading straight through a bunch of titans that they couldn't handle just to get free, so it wasn't even worth it to try and get out of this trap.

The plan had sounded so solid at the beginning, yet the more the group traveled along the set path, the more it seemed like nothing but disaster was waiting for them.

Which was when the first part of the tragedy that was known as their short miserable lives began.

As Armin led them up, using a large clock tower to provide a height advantage, something came flying at the group, faster than they could react.

Eren was sent flying into a building, sliding down until he was just gripping the roof shingles, but he couldn't really bring himself to care.

As he stared back at the direction of the object, he could pretty easily see it was a titan, wrapped around the clock tower and presumably eating a faceful of brick and hopefully nothing else, but Eren wasn't too sure.

He'd heard a couple people land on the roof above or beside him, but he had absolutely no clue or how many, as he'd been a little too busy eating shingles at the time, so he looked up and took a head count.

Mina, Armin, and Nic were all easy to spot, along with his other group members who revealed themselves as he continued to scan the area, yet no matter where he looked, there was one person missing, one person who had been right next to him in his squad lineup…

Eren glanced back at the titan, still on the clocktower, only to watch in horror as it's head moved to the side revealing Thomas stuck within it's maw. He appeared to be saying something, but Eren couldn't hear it at all.

It felt like a thick cotton had been shoved in his ears, hands on either side of his face as they prevented him from looking away from the awful sight ahead of him, as the titan simply tilted his head back and swallowed Thomas whole.

And Eren felt his blood_ boil._

How dare they.

How fucking dare they.

How dare they trap them within this sad excuse for a prison that they called paradise. How dare they invade and kill whatever they can get their hands on. How dare they end the lives of men and women, fighting for their lives, for their own sick pleasure because they couldn't even digest them, didn't even need them-

"How fucking dare you eat Thomas!" Eren screamed as he zipped away from his team. Fully intent on ending this and every other titan he could get his hands on existences right here and now. He was done playing nice, he was done simply trying to escape, and now he was fighting back!

He switched his gas output into high, throwing all of his weight into every movement, moving as fast as he could over numerous rooftops, getting closer and closer to that titan, that dreaded beast, that fucking mindless monster that seemed content with doing nothing but hanging onto the clocktower, until he moved over a large crevice and-

Suddenly Eren was tipping over, smashing face first into a ton of roof tiles, many making a residence within his eyes and forehead, efficiently blinding him for the time being.

He could feel the sting of tiles in his face, in his arms, walls, really everywhere, but the worst was his left leg, which stung, oh walls it fucking burned, but it would heal, it would heal, so Eren kicked his leg up, trying to dislodge any debris that had gotten stuck and may have been making his leg numb and-oh.

He'd never tested large scale amputation before.

He let out a small scream as the stump hit the roof tiles again, letting loose a fresh wave of blood that he could see drip down in a small square pattern in the tiles, and for some reason, Eren felt like laughing.

The screams of the rest of his team members rang out, although whether it was from the horror of seeing him lie prone on a roof sans one leg, or from their own demise was unknown, but he honestly wasn't sure he wanted to know which.

The good news was that he could already feel his leg closing, the wound steaming shut rapidly before closing off into a stump, and fuck he hoped that that wasn't permanent. He pulled himself up and wiped his face off, removing large chunks of tile that came along with his hands, but he couldn't quite take everything out of his left eye.

Great, so the left side of his body was functionally useless and he was smack dab in the middle of titan territory, his squad fuck knows where, hopefully still alive, and was totally on his own.

He pushed himself up on a single shaky leg, leaning on it in a crouched position as he used what was left of his left leg to keep him balanced and checked his gear.

As he feared, when he went to hit the button for the locking mechanism all he heard was a soft click, the movement of gears, and then a catch. Nothing had happened, which could only mean one thing.

Something had gotten jammed into the inner working of his gear, and he bet if he took it apart right now it'd be small chunks of roof, just chilling along with the inner mechanism of everything that was actually supposed to be there.

Amazing. Wow this day just kept getting better and better!

Although he was one of the lucky ones.

At least he could shift. If necessary, and it looked like it really was going to be unless Annie showed up soon, he had no real way of defending himself or really getting anywhere since his gear was broken, but of course all of the same issues that he had previously thought of with shifting still applied, so he'd really like to avoid that if possible.

But fuck!_ Fuck!_ Even if he was rescued he had no way of explaining why his leg was growing back, he had nothing to say about the safety of his team except for the fact that they'd been attacked suddenly and unexpectedly and trying to hide in this titan infested area was just about as deadly as walking in front of the cannons they still had left and going "Hey, I'm a titan, here's some proof!"

Which left the eternal question, the one he'd been asking himself since the start of this whole fucking mess.

To shift or not to shift?

However before Eren could get any father with this line of thought, a flash of movement caught his attention to his left, and he looked over only to see…

No. No it couldn't be!

Just to his left he watched as a titan picked Armin up with it's gigantic hand, the boy hanging limp in it's grip as the beast began to tilt his head back. Yet as the titan continued it's ministrations, Armin just stayed still, from shock or whatever else he had no idea, as for all Eren knew his gear could be broken as well, landing them both in that same situation with only one determining factor.

Fuck, without his gear there was absolutely no way to get to the titan's nape, and if he shifted it'd take far too long to him to form, and by that time Armin would already be gone, dead, crushed between giant teeth or torn apart at the hands of monsters.

And he couldn't let that happen, he couldn't. Not to Armin, not to the one that had told him about the outside world, not to the one who supported him at every twist and turn, no matter how stupid he had been or was being, he just couldn't!

So Eren steeled himself. The distance between him and Armin wasn't all that much when he actually thought about it, the biggest obstacle simply being time and his difficulty moving with only one leg, but he'd manage, he'd have to.

Otherwise there'd be no way to save Armin.

Placing his hands onto the ground he got on all fours, er, all threes and in a maneuver that would have been absolutely horrifying looking to any onlookers, lifted what was remaining of his left leg and proceeded to bear crawl as fast as he possibly could towards the Area where Armin was still being dangled in the air.

He'd always thought that any bear crawl drills that they'd had to do in training were pointless, simply a torturous exercise that people spent time on if only to lessen the strain of everything else, but in this moment he was thankful as he drew closer and closer to the beast.

Although it was certainly bigger than some other titans-probably standing around ten meters-it was small enough that Eren shouldn't have much of a problem grabbing Armin and ripping him out of the titans hand, using a little bit more than human strength.

But that all hinged on whether it continued to hold Armin for just a little while longer, just long enough that Eren could grab him, just a little fucking longer _please._

Yet he was having no such luck, as he became close enough to the titan to touch it, it released its fingers and Eren watched in almost slow motion as Armin dropped, down, down, into the titan's throat, but he wasn't going to let that happen, not today.

He gripped onto the teeth of the titan and threw himself into its mouth, something he'd never imagined doing in all of his time living, and grabbed onto one of the massive teeth to stabilize himself.

Shoving one hand down the creature's throat, he grasped desperately for Armin, only being able to grab the sleeve of his jacket, but that was enough.

Armin immediately grabbed onto Eren's arm, clinging for dear life as Eren quickly readjusted so that he was gripping Armin's wrist as well.

With one smooth motion he pulled Armin up and out of the titan's throat, using the momentum to propel him outwards onto the roof right in front of him.

Which was when Eren realized that he had made a rather large miscalculation.

Although he hadn't really thought about it much before he threw himself into the beast's maw, he'd assumed that he would be strong enough to keep the titan's jaws open long enough for him to throw himself out as well, and he was right in one aspect.

He _was_ able to hold the titan's jaws open, albeit barely, but he certainly wasn't able to push them up any further, and it was honestly a losing battle just to hold them.

If he attempted to throw himself outwards he'd be crushed in less than a second, being able to make it out half way before being severed at best, and having his head taken off at worst, both of which Eren wasn't sure that he could recover from.

Worst of all, he couldn't shift.

He kept trying and trying, using the same feeling of fear that he had felt before when he was bleeding out on the forest floor, when he was sliced by Annie's knife, but nothing was happening,_ nothing was happening_!

There had only been one circumstance that Annie had warned him that he wouldn't be able to shift in, which would be if he was eaten by a titan, but he hadn't been yet, hadn't at all, and yet-and yet nothing was happening!

So this was it then.

He was going to die here, not quite alone but fully helpless and without killing a single one, fuck he _hadn't even killed a single titan_!

All those people had been right then, all those who told him it was worthless, all those that told him he would die to the first titan he fought, all those who told him that he wouldn't change anything, they had been right.

And he was gonna die here, without doing a single thing, without even getting a chance to use his powers for good, just another number in a long list of deaths.

He locked eyes with Armin, who seemed to be frozen in fear as he laid prone on the roof.

Well, maybe not nothing then.

He could feel the titan increasing the pressure on top of his arms, and his limbs shook with the force it took to just keep himself up, to not get eaten, not yet.

He looked at Armin one more time, giving what he hoped to be a strained smile and not a grimace and said, "Please, find the ocean." as his legs and arms finally failed him, muscles tearing beneath the stress or bearing far too much pressure allowing for the titan to finally close its mouth.

As he slid down the titans throat, his hands scrabbled for purchase, for anything that would allow him to live just a little bit longer, but couldn't grab anything.

And so, as he slid, he allowed himself to fade to black, hoping and praying to everything that could hear that Armin wouldn't follow him.

To say Annie was a bit frazzled would be an understatement.

Overall so far the mission had been going pretty well, and by going well she meant there hadn't been any catastrophic failures or oversights yet, which was a good sign, and also something she attributed to thoroughly talking about it beforehand, and limiting the actual actions each person had to take, specifically Reiner.

_"So, let me get this right," Reiner had asked, standing in a group towards the forest edge, far away from any prying eyes of other cadets, "We're going to set up basically a pincer operation using nothing but titans? Highly unpredictable titans?"_

_"Well when you put it that way it doesn't sound so great, but yes." Annie stated, twirling her hair between her fingers. "After I tell Armin to head to the tower and how to get there, I'll break away from my team and lead some titans around the area, which should hopefully split Eren's team up during the chaos."_

_"And if it doesn't?" Bertholdt asked, partially asking a valid question and partially implying what nobody wanted to think about._

_At the end of the day, no matter what they did, people were going to die. People they'd known, worked with,_ lived_ with for over three years were going to die and all three of them were going to be responsible, but it couldn't be helped._

_They had to complete their mission._

_Or at least that's what Annie told herself, as her hands trembled with the force of what she was proposing to do. Legitimately leading people to their deaths._

_After her initial view of those living in the walls wore off and she saw them for what they actually were-people, god they were people just like them living their own lives and trying to get by and they were going to send them to their deaths again-she'd comfortored herself with the thought that she at least wasn't fully directly responsible for all those deaths, as really it was the titans simply picking off whatever they could, not any of her doing, but this was different._

_At this point she may as well have been picking up a knife and stabbing Eren's team members herself._

_(and she thought of Armin, too smart for his own good but meaning well, and of Thomas who she didn't even have to talk to to know how kind he was, and Mina, sweet Mina, who had offered to share her food and was far too sweet to be involved in such a war, who had offered more than once to help her talk things out-)_

_"If not once we get to the tower we can pull him away under the guise of shifting or some sort. It's got quite a few blind spots we can grab him from." She replied quickly, picking at her nails. Although they could probably get away simply grabbing him at the tower, she preferred to try and put everything that she could in their favor._

_After all, the last thing they wanted was the plan failing, for both her sake and the sake of her soon to be fallen comrades._

_Reiner rubbed the back of his head. "So we don't do anything but kill some titans if needed and grab Eren?"_

_"Basically." Annie replied, turning back to look at some of the cadets who were starting to come out of the mess hall. "Minimize interaction and then get the hell out of there."_

And so far they'd gotten lucky.

From what she'd seen, Armin did in fact decide to take the route which encapsulated the bigger buildings-which would have been optimal if Annie hadn't basically been leading titans right into the area, trapping them within the building maze-and she'd been able to lose most of her own team, meeting up with Reiner along the way.

Which was great, everything was going great, except…

Something seemed to be a bit off with Reiner.

He'd always been the most sensitive of the group-something that he'd refused to admit-and Annie knew that he'd formed some pretty strong attachments to these people, and couldn't really blame him.

She'd formed some pretty strong ones too, but Reiner was just...different.

According to him, most of his team had gotten separated after the wall break and he'd seen some shit, but what was odd was the fear.

He seemed to be legitimately afraid for the rest of Wall Rose, going as far to comment on how he hoped nothing like five years ago happened, and while Annie would have originally chalked it up to good acting, they'd been alone at the time.

He had no reason to keep up the act, hell then was the time to drop it, yet he was still acting like that soldier persona he'd created.

It was...a bit disconcerting, to say the least, but Annie simply figured he was in shock, as to be honest she was pretty messed up at the moment as well, so she'd sent him on his way, to find Bertholdt, and decided to look for Armin's team (or what was left) on her own.

Which brought her to her current situation.

After flying around the area she'd proposed for Armin to go through for a bit she spotted a familiar bob of blond hair, and hoping that it wasn't Krista, went in for a landing.

By the time that she'd gotten there, Connie had already approached, seemingly coming up from nowhere, and was already shaking Armin who seemed to be totally unresponsive, which was fine, but where was Eren?

There's no way that Eren would have just left him here to fend for himself, and while she'd attribute Armin's reaction to seeing something like a shift, there was a very fucking obvious lack of fifteen meter beefcake titans around, so that couldn't be it either.

"Get a hold of yourself man!" Connie shouted as loud as he dared. "What happened here?"

While Annie had to admire his efforts and tenacity, she thought it was pretty obvious at this point that Armin wasn't exactly in the mood to share his thoughts, and no amount of shaking was really going to snap him out of it.

It was a textbook example of what they'd been told about in class, the main reason why titans were so deadly to people.

On their own, a single recruit well versed in 3DMG should be able to take out quite a few as long as they weren't swarmed, a problem which was hypothetically solved by having large groups of people attack, except it wasn't.

Titans were unpredictable and humans were emotional, so at some point somebody would get scared, mess up and die, and the rest of the group would have no way to recover. People would freeze, let their anger take hold of them, or simply begin to doubt themselves and it was over, and that was the advantage titans had over people, other than size and numbers.

They didn't care if they died, they didn't care if hundreds of them were being slaughtered and simply honed in on their target and what they wanted and struck.

And it was impossible to fight against an enemy that didn't care what happened to the rest of them and_ just kept coming_.

While she normally would have just written Armin off as a lost cause, she couldn't in this case, for many reasons, but the main one was she needed to know where Eren was, and preferably sooner rather than later.

She stood there for a second. Arms crossed as she waited for Armin to snap out of whatever funk he had run himself into when Ymir and Krista appeared, both coming from behind her.

Great. Just what she needed.

"What type of shit show is going on here?" Ymir asked as she gestured towards Connie who was still trying valiantly to shake Armin back to reality.

"Dunno." She responded, attempting to sound much more composed than she actually was. "He was like that when I got here."

"No team?"

"Not that I can see."

"Hm." She responded, looking back at Krista. While Ymir wasn't the most fond of some of the people in Armin's group, especially Eren for a couple of reasons, it wasn't as if she wanted any of them to die.

As Annie looked back over, it actually seemed if Connie had gotten somewhere because Armin looked marginally less out of it and was actually moving a small bit, something that wouldn't save him if a titan suddenly appeared, but still quite a bit better than just being catatonic and chilling on a rooftop.

And then he started screaming.

Annie actually panicked a bit at the sudden noise, as fuck fuck, if you want to attract a ton of titans here really quickly that was the way to do it, and she really didn't want to have to vacate the area before finding out where Eren had gone, but as quickly as it started it died down.

"Armin, Armin!" Connie shouted as he began to get up, not acknowledging that there were others around him. "Are you back with us now? What happened? Where's the rest of your team?"

"Why do you even need to ask, it's obvious that the rest of his team was eaten." Ymir stated plainly, ignoring Krista gently chiding her in the background, and while Annie would have agreed with her under normal circumstances, there was a factor that Ymir didn't know about.

There was no way that Eren could have been eaten, as she'd specifically told him that that was the one thing a shifter couldn't come back from and to turn regardless of the surroundings if he was about to be eaten.

It was the one exception she had allowed to the normal 'don't let anyone know of your abilities under any circumstance' rule, as she really didn't want to be stuck here for years and years because the person they knew was the founding titan got eaten and they had no idea by who.

(and also because she really didn't want to see Eren get eaten because it was a horrible and painful death and he was far too motivated for any of that to happen and she really couldn't deal with the thought of him struggling in a titan's maw, unable to complete what he yearned for for so long)

So he was certainly alive, she just had to figure out exactly where he had gone and Armin was her best be right now.

But Armin just seemed to freeze, fat tears continuing to roll down his face as he pushed himself up to his feet, taking a shaky breath to calm himself.

"Th-that can't be right, Armin?" Connie asked nervously, only to watch in despair as Armin simply nodded, unclipping the broken swords that were still in his holsters. It looked as if he was getting ready to take off, although to where she had no idea, but she couldn't let this chance slip through her fingers.

"Everyone?" She asked, surprised by the shakiness in her voice. "Thomas, and Mina, and even Eren?"

Armin simply nodded again, but Annie wasn't satisfied. No matter what Armin though, he must have seen something. Something that he probably thought was Eren's last moments, but Annie knew better and needed every single bit of information she could get.

She knew she was pushing it now, as too much asking about Eren specifically would definitely raise some suspicion but she continued with, "Are you sure? I mean some of them must have escaped and there's no way Eren could have-"

"He saved me!" Armin yelled, much more forcefully and suddenly than she had been expecting. "I was fucking dropped into a titans mouth and he pulled me out only to go in my place and I don't fucking understand why because I can't do anything!" He ended as he breathed heavily, unshed tears again falling across his cheeks as he tried to calm himself down.

"I'll go regroup with the others." He finally said after a moment, zipping off the roof and towards the supply tower as Connie told him to wait up but Annie simply stood there, frozen.

He what?

He was eaten?

No, there was no way that was possible, it just couldn't happen.

She'd specifically warned him of what to do, the one thing to avoid and he'd never had any reason not to trust her before.

And besides, didn't he plan to kill all titans?

There was just no way that he'd let himself die like that.

There was no way he was dead.

He just couldn't be.

_He just couldn't._

Annie hadn't even realized she was crying until the first few drops fell into her mouth, warm and salty as she continued to stare at the rooftops.

He couldn't be dead, but Armin had no reason to lie to her, but he couldn't be dead Armin had to be lying, but he didn't look at all like he was lying, that wasn't the face of a liar, that was the face of someone who was telling the truth and didn't want to be.

It was a look she knew all too well.

She went to wipe her face, but more tears came to replace the ones she pulled away, continuously blurring her vision and falling to her feet, but Annie didn't even really know why she was crying.

Ymir spared her a glance and she watched as Krista shifted nervously, debating whether to comfort her or not-which was stupid why would she need comfort when nothing was wrong-before they both took off together in the same direction of Armin.

Heading towards the supply tower.

Where she was supposed to meet up with Eren.

A mass of guilt hit her in the stomach, fast and hard to the point where she actually gagged a bit as she realized that, no, Armin probably hadn't been lying to her, as it had been too specific, too realistic of a scenario, and too emotional of an explanation for it to have been made up, which meant that that whole plan was a failure.

They'd broken a hole in the wall for no reason, they'd killed possibly thousands of people for no reason, they killed their_ teammates _for no fucking reason-

And they'd killed Eren too.

She'd led those titans right to them, she had known exactly what she had been doing, trapping them within the maze of buildings so that titans could finish off him and his team members one by one.

Fuck, she may as well have strangled him with her own two hands with what she had done.

And then that imagery popped up into her head, Eren pinned underneath her as she wrapped her hands around his neck, him begging, _pleading_ her not to do this, that she didn't have to do this, that they were friends as he slowly suffocated-

Annie leaned over the side of the roof as she heaved, a meager bowl of soup coming up as she didn't have much appetite this morning in the first place, knowing what she was about to do that day, but also believing that it would have a point, a purpose.

But it didn't.

The person that they had to grab was dead and all they had to show for it was a titan infestation and hundreds of casualties so far.

And now they were going to have to find the coordinate again, searching through the hundreds of thousands of refugees of Trost attempting to find that one special person that they needed to bring back and not fuck it up like they did this time.

Not kill them like they did Eren.

And that was the real kicker here wasn't it?

The one person that they couldn't kill, the one person who was the key to everything, the one person who supposedly had almost infinite power, dead at the hands of a mindless titan because they cared for their friends more than their life.

Because they were actually a good person, unlike her who had sacrificed everyone in Trost just for a chance to complete her mission.

And that was how Bertholdt found her, sitting on the edge of a rooftop as titans casually strolled closer and closer, still unable to stop the tears from pouring out of her eyes.

"What...are you-um, well are you ok?" He asked as he fluttered around her nervously.

Annie knew that she probably looked like shit, and that him asking was really more of a courtesy than a legitimate question but she still responded with a muffled "M'fine."

Bertholdt seemed to realize that he was somewhat walking on eggshells here, as no, she was very obviously not fine and _something _had happened and it really had to be big to impact her in such a way that it would seriously affect the mission like this, but seriously, now was_ not_ the time to be having a mental breakdown.

"I saw uh, Armin back at the supply tower, but no Eren, so did you find-"

"Eren's dead." She responded in monotone and Bertholdt took a small step back.

That would...that would ruin everything-and it would also explain why Annie was so upset because she certainly cared for Eren a lot more than she let on, a lot more than she really probably should have-but moreso, it could make any future plans a bitch to complete.

"Do you, uh, know how he-" Bertholdt got cut off once more.

"Got eaten right in front of Armin."

Ah.

That would not be fun.

Now, Bertholdt was upset for multiple reasons, one of them being that yeah, Eren had actually been a kind of ok person, aside for the murderous tendencies, but the real issue here was they had literally no fucking idea where the coordinate could be now, and-although he felt bad thinking it-Annie was being kind of useless right now.

"So what's the plan now then?" He asked, grabbing her arm and pulling her up to her feet. "Do we have any idea of what the titan that ate him looked like? We might be able to find the person that came out of it."

Normally if he had pulled her up the way he just had, Annie would have sucker punched him in the gut, but she seemed to be pretty out of it since she just allowed him to set her down.

He knew that she was attached to Eren, much more than she'd ever really admit, but was it really this bad?

"No, Armin left before I could ask." She responded, arms hanging listlessly at her sides.

She knew she was probably being a bit dramatic and she still had a mission to complete, a mission that she was complicating further by not doing anything right now, but she couldn't really bring herself to care.

She'd already fucked it up so bad.

The guilt continued to settle in the pits of her stomach, building and building until she swore that it would burst, and in some sort of way it did.

She felt anger bubble up and rise to the back of her throat, anger from the fact that she had been the one to lead the titans to Eren's group, anger from Eren's team not being able to protect him, anger at Armin because he didn't do _anything,_ but mostly anger at Eren himself.

He was able to shift.

He was able to shift into the most powerful titan know to man but he'd fucking thrown it away and decided to die a 'heroic' death instead.

He'd thrown away everything that she'd taught him and threw himself into a titan's mouth for what? Just to spite her? Just because he was a fucking idiot who didn't think to kill the titan instead?

And that thought just brought forth more and more anger, because didn't he claim that he was going to kill all the titans? So what the fuck was he doing out her dying to one of the first titans he met rather than just killing them.

It didn't add up and it was making her_ mad_.

With a deep breath she whipped herself around, startling Bertholdt who she hadn't realized was standing so close to her.

"We're heading back to the supply tower, and we're going to question the fuck out of Armin."

Meanwhile, once Armin had made it back to the supply tower, he realized that things weren't as bad as he thought they'd be.

They were much worse.

According to some of those who were already in the tower, they were completely trapped, as the surrounding area itself was fairly clear, but now matter which direction you went after you left the plaza there'd be dozens of titans waiting for you.

The elite squad tasked with guarding the tower had been wiped out early on, and the only people who really stood a chance, the garrison, had lost almost all their artillery when the colossal swiped its hand across the wall.

But the undeniably worst part was the supply depot, down below the floor he was standing on.

Ten or so smaller titans had somehow wormed their way in-why the doors for the supply depot were big enough for this to happen was beyond him, but whatever-so there was no way to replenish any of the oh so precious gas that everyone was running low on.

Realistically, it was only a matter of time before this place was swarmed and everyone inside was dead, but for now it was a nice reprieve from the chaos.

A nice time to think about how to break the news to Mikasa.

And he _would _be breaking the news to her at some point, because there was no way that she would die here today.

He wasn't going to lose two close friends in one day.

And Mikasa was strong, much stronger than any of the other cadets, and much stronger than any person he had seen before.

Even the commander had commented on how she was a huge prodigy, among the very few compliments he had made, and had said that she just might rival up to humanity's strongest one day, so there was no way she'd be taken down here.

But the fact that he couldn't find her here was more than a little worrying.

Before she'd been pulled away to form an unplanned elite team, they had both agreed to meet up with the others if her team got wiped out-an unfortunate tragedy but a real possibility.

According to those around the supply tower who were still able to talk about their experiences, that team had been mostly wiped out early on, so she_ should _be here, but the more he asked around the more he realized that nobody knew where she was.

So there he was, stuck in a supply tower that nobody could get supplies, one of his friends dead and the other missing.

And that gun that was getting passed around now was looking really tempting.

He'd already seen a couple of cadets do it, end their suffering before a titan could get to them while the remaining cadets swarmed their still warm corpse, grabbing gas, blades, anything that could help them live just a _little _bit longer.

Yet the worst part was that he agreed with them, was almost excited when he heard another shot ring out because that meant more supplies, that meant there were less people here which would attract less titans.

He was always disgusted with himself less than a second later, once the realization of how he'd been thinking hit, but he couldn't deny that it was happening.

And then the rumors spread.

Rumors of another massive titan to the east, over a hundred meters tall and making more holes in the wall.

A fast one to the west, barreling through cities and destroying houses in its wake, it's victims not even knowing what hit them.

That the armored had appeared and was actively prepping to go right through Trost's walls and into the rest of Wall Rose.

But the strangest one of them all was of a titan attacking other titans, around fifteen meters tall and more muscular than anything any cadet had ever seen, it punched and kicked and bit other titans with its lipless maw and sharp claws, killing more than any soldier could ever hope to in their lives in under ten minutes.

That one spread the quickest, the cadets coming in quickly getting sucked up in the rumors, claiming that they thought they saw it but weren't sure. That it was prowling just out of sight of the tower, but nobody was brave enough to go out and check.

It was the most prolific one, and it was obvious as to why so many people were spreading it, as even Armin wanted desperately for it to be true.

But logically, he knew that the odds of something like that happening were close to zero.

Even on the extended expeditions that the survey corps took, there were no sightings of a titan that looked even somewhat similar to what the others were saying, nor were there ever any reports of titans fighting other titans.

Just ones of them eating more and more humans.

Even so, against all logic, Armin held out a small bit of hope.

Maybe it was true, maybe there was something that was killing the titans around here that he simply couldn't see, after all those rumors had to come from somewhere.

He had to keep up hope because the alternative was to give up.

And he wouldn't let Eren's sacrifice be in vain.

Mikasa was...worried to say the least.

She didn't doubt Armin or his ability to keep his team safe, but titans were unpredictable and it wasn't as if Armin knew everything so a multitude of things could go wrong.

If it had been up to her, she would have strapped both Eren and Armin to her back and carried them over the wall before heading back to help out the fighting effort, regardless of how hard it would have made maneuvering.

Really it wasn't so much Armin she was worried about, but rather Eren.

It wasn't as if she thought he was weak, after all she wasn't stupid. She knew that he had strength, maybe not enough to kill all the titans on his own like he wished, but he_ had_ placed fifth in their training division, but he was rash. He didn't really think things through and that could easily be deadly when the smallest mistake could lead to your death.

But she couldn't think about that too much now, because frankly, she was in trouble.

The gas canisters that they had given the cadets were almost never full, mostly to discourage unnecessary use, but today they had only given everyone canisters about three fourths full, something that was really coming back to bite them now.

Unless she really needed to get somewhere, the majority of her movement simply consisted latching onto whatever was the tallest thing around and attempting to swing from building to building without having to waste any gas, unless she needed to be somewhere quickly.

It wasn't ideal, but she didn't have any other option.

However, despite her best efforts the little red needle that displayed gas use had been in the red zone for far too long, and she was in desperate need of a fill up.

So there she was, running across rooftops and swinging from towers as fast as she could all the while searching for Eren's team, for another elite squad, for _anything _that could give her a better idea of the situation or help her get to a spot where she can get more gas.

After all, it wasn't as if it was impossible for a person to operate 3DMG and hold somebody else at the same time, so if worst came to worst she could always just combine tanks with another cadet.

Or loot them off of corpses.

However it looked like she wasn't the only one to have this exact idea, as almost all of the ones she came across either had empty tanks or they were gone, stolen by a hopefully luckier cadet.

Which is why when she caught a flash of blonde hair she risked using a bit of gas and calling out.

"Hey! Which squad are you?"

The two that she could see stopped, and began making their way towards her as she moved along the rooftops.

She'd been hoping it was Armin, after all this was about where he said his squad would be, but instead it had been Annie and Bertholdt, and the two looked a bit rattled to say the least.

She wasn't the biggest fan of Annie, but desperate times call for desperate measures and Mikasa could also tell that something was...wrong, to say the least.

Bertholdt seemed to be walking on eggshells around her and Annie herself wasn't her calm composed usual self. She had red eyes and blotchy skin and looked like she just came out of a pretty major crying session, which was really out of character.

Something big must have happened.

"Where are you two headed?" Mikasa asked once she was within a reasonable distance. No need to yell and attract more titans.

"Supply depot." Annie answered, wringing out her hands. "We're planning on meeting up with Armin again."

It was good to hear that they had met up with Armin at some point, as it meant that he was probably still alive, but again?

And what about the rest of his team?

"Again?" She asked. "Why didn't you stay with him?"

Now the smart move for Annie here would have been to keep quiet, to lie, to do anything other than tell the truth because everybody knew how much Mikasa cared for Eren and it didn't take a genius to piece together that he was...no longer with them from what Annie said and was about to say, but in all fairness, she wasn't exactly having a great time today.

"I was a bit...upset, and decided to stay behind for a bit."

Mikasa made a bit of a face at that. So somebody had certainly died before or around the same time she met up with Armin and co™, and it had to be somebody that she had been pretty close to.

She hoped it wasn't Reiner, as for all the stupid shit he'd said and done, Mikasa knew that Eren and a lot of other cadets thought of him as almost a brother.

"Ah." she responded, not wanting to add more fuel to the fire. "I'm sorry about that, but did you talk with Eren? How's he handling things?"

Now it was Annie's turn to make a face as she watched Bertholdt turn from slightly nervous to downright alarmed. What was the issue here? Were Eren and Armin not doing well?

"I, um," Annie spoke as she swallowed thickly, "I didn't get a chance to speak with him. Just with Armin."

Why would they decide to separate? "Did you find out where Eren was?"

"I...did. In a sense."

At this point, Annie knew that she was poking the bear. A part of her didn't want Mikasa to know, saying that it wasn't worth it and to simply let Armin break the news later, but another part of her, a much angrier and larger part was screaming that she deserved to know, that if Annie had to deal with this Mikasa was going to as well.

That it wasn't fair.

"Ok…?" Mikasa asked cautiously. Normally Annie was straight to the point, no nonsense, no bullshit, but she was dancing around something. Did they not know where Eren was? "So where is he."

"He's not with us."

"Well, yes, I can see that." Mikasa replied, more than a bit confused. If they didn't know where he was they should just say it rather than trying to lead her on with some cryptic bullshit.

Annie shook her head. "No that's not what I...He's not with Armin, he's, well, with the rest of his team. In a sense."

Annie knew that she wasn't being clear, and it wasn't as if she wanted to confuse Mikasa, but she was honestly having a bit of a hard time trying to outright say it herself. She didn't want to keep having to say it, and she didn't want to be the one breaking it to Mikasa here and now, but sometimes the world just doesn't give a shit about what you want.

"He's with his team?" She asked, still not getting it.

So that meant Armin wasn't with his team either, which made even less sense than Eren not being with him.

Armin knew that he wasn't that strong on his own, that his real strength came from employing tactics within a team, which Eren knew as well. Besides, Eren had always said he'd rather die than leave Armin at the mercy of the titans so him just deciding to leave with the rest of his team didn't make sense.

He'd rather-

Ah.

They'd been trying to break it to her softly.

Eren was no longer with them.

Huh.

Mikasa wanted to cry, she really did. For a second she'd felt more sadness than she'd ever known flood her body, from the tips of her fingers to her toes and tears bubble at her eyes before it all seemed to shut off.

It was like a faucet to her emotions had been shut, because now not only did she not feel anything regarding Eren's death, but she didn't feel the worry from the low gas like she did before. She didn't feel any fear from the numerous titans roaming around.

She now had a mission, and she was going to complete it regardless of the consequences.

"I see." She responded plainly after not getting a response, but rather watching Annie's eyes meet the floor. "Do you two think you have enough gas to make it to the supply tower?"

Annie's head snapped up.

"I do, but-"

"Ok, Good. I'm going whether you come or not."

And with that she took off, propelling herself forward as fast as she could, regardless of the possible titans that could be ahead.

Annie and Bertholdt stood there for a second, shocked as they watched Mikasa's retreating back.

That was not the reaction they had been expecting.

Annie was the first to snap out of it, saying "What are you standing there for? Are we going to follow her or what?"

"Oh, I um, yes." Bertholdt stammered out before taking his swords back out of his holsters and following after her.

In hindsight deciding to take off as fast as she could, using as much as the gas she had left wasn't the greatest idea as less than two minutes into the flight she could feel the reserves begin to sputter and slow as she had to rely more and more on momentum to fling herself forward, but she just had a little more.

She just had to get to the supply tower and she'd be able to replenish her gas canisters and everything would be fine.

It would be fine.

Although she was mostly focused on the tower, she could see from the corner of her eye that she had attracted quite a bit of an audience, with some notable characters like Jean and Connie trailing not too far behind her.

Good.

If she wasn't going to make it to the supply tower at least others were.

It wasn't thirty seconds later that she felt her gas supply sputter for a final time and then totally shut off, sending her careening towards the ground, but more so towards the dozens of titans littering the area who were more than happy to be given a free snack.

She'd been expecting the fall, but hadn't quite expected it to hurt so much as she rolled over roof tiles and smacked the ground with an audible sound.

Somebody was yelling behind her and she saw the trails of gas overhead as a few people flew past her, either not realizing she'd fallen or simply not having enough gas to help her out, but either way it seemed like she would be totally ignored.

And maybe it was better this way.

What was she even going to do once she got to the supply tower anyway? Get some supplies then go out and die in a blaze of glory?

The only thing that that would accomplish would be wasting supplies that others could be using to escape and wouldn't even put a dent into the oncoming titans, so it wouldn't even be worth it to do.

She already knew that Armin was somewhere safe, and her being there wouldn't make much of a difference. After all, he was a genius. Regardless of who was there, he'd be able to make it out, to do something.

But she wouldn't.

She knew it was only a matter of time before she died here, as she could already hear rumbling footsteps rounding the corner in front of her as well as something behind her, something big, so for now it was just a matter of which one got to her first.

And it looked like it would be the one rounding the corner in front of her.

It was a slow moving titan, one she would have had no trouble taking down with functional gear, but without it, even the best of soldiers was at the mercy of these giant beasts.

No matter how much she kicked, punched, or stabbed, the titan would just regenerate in seconds. Trying to fight off one without any way to get to its nape was just a waste of energy.

But would Eren think that way?

Would he sit here and simply let a titan eat him because he didn't have a reliable way to fight back?

Would he have just given up?

No. No he wouldn't have.

Her eyes widened as the giant grew closer, it's hands splayed out as if it were a child going to pick up a piece of fruit and she was brought back to a memory.

A memory of days when things were simpler, when joining the military hadn't been necessary for survival. When her biggest worry was whether Eren would fall out of the tree he'd decided to climb simply because he saw a tasty looking fruit at the top.

She'd never figured out what the fruit was, and they'd never been able to get it, but Eren had tried.

He'd tried and tried and tried, even though he knew it was useless, even though he'd failed so many times before he just got up and kept going.

He just kept moving forward.

So what the hell was she doing here, giving up just because she thought it was useless before she'd even tried? Why was she just deciding to give up without a fight?

If she didn't fight she couldn't win!

And so she reached back to the few swords that she still had in her possession, short and dull and whipped it out in front of her, trying to bat away the titan with nothing more than a blade the length of a kitchen knife.

To her credit, although it was an entirely useless endeavor, she took pleasure in watching the blade cut through the titans fingertips like butter, the beast recoiling slightly as it looked down at it's bloody finger stumps.

It almost looked offended at the fact that she was fighting back, as if it expected her to be easy prey, something it could simply scoop up and eat without any problem.

But she wasn't going to go down that easy.

The titan reared up on her again coming back down with more force and more vigor and Mikasa knew she was done for. She swung her blade once more, but it didn't deter the titan in the slightest.

It simply kept moving forward and forward, getting closer and closer, until it suddenly wasn't.

She was knocked off of the ground by something behind her, something big and forceful and_ fast _and her vision went black for a second, or it must have as she didn't remember closing her eyes, but one second the titan ahead of her had had its finger splayed wide and within striking distance and the next it was being knocked back by a gigantic fist.

Holy shit.

_Holy shit._

She couldn't see it but the titan-it had to be a titan, nothing else was that big and powerful-from behind her must have been leaning right over her, looming as it found a piece of prey that it wanted, and was it an abnormal?

Nobody had ever observed titans fighting over people, but it had long been theorized that it was possible in certain isolated situations, so it wasn't completely irrational to think, except a titan purposefully fighting another over prey would imply something that nobody wanted to think about something that nobody truly thought was possible.

And then the titan behind her roared, no _screamed._

Mikasa covered her ears as it bellowed, a sound unlike any other she'd heard from a titan because this didn't sound like the thoughtless noises and growls they usually made, this sounded as if all the rage of humanity had been compressed into one creature and then turned loose, it sounded wrathful, and it sounded desperate.

No sooner had the beast behind her stopped than the one in front of her decided to roar back, but it was mindless, nothing like the bellow she'd heard a second earlier and was cut short by the beast moving forward, over her, and slamming it's fist into the titan's face once more.

She could hear the crunch of bone as the titans skull caved under the force as it fell to the ground, but she knew it'd get up in a moment or so. It wouldn't take that long for the titan to heal unless its nape was destroyed.

Really, she should have left at that point, should have bolted and never looked back because this titan-Walls was it even really a titan?-would turn back and kill her the first chance it got, but for some reason she couldn't.

She just fell to her knees and stared at it, and couldn't even think of a good reason as to why.

She watched in horror as the titan began to lift itself off the ground, steam pouring from the gaping cavity around it's eye socket, but it barely even got a few inches off the ground before the beast before it was lifting up its foot and crushing its head.

And then it stomped again.

And again.

And again.

Until the titan beneath it was nothing more than a pile of red meat, skull and nape almost liquefied from the force of those stomps, and that was when she realized that this really was no regular titan.

It was far too muscular and proportionate, Walls it looked just like one of those professional fighters she'd encountered so far back in the past aside from its face and ears, and its nails came to a point, to claws for ripping and destroying.

But most of all it was different in how it moved.

She'd never heard of a titan throwing a punch before, only open handed slaps meant to grab and grip, and the idea that a titan would stomp, aiming for another's nape was simply preposterous. It moved with precision, as if each movement was getting it closer to its goal, whatever that could be, and locked its eyes onto its prey.

There was no way that this could be happening.

But all the proof was right there in front of her, roaring once more as she urged herself to get up, to get out of there, because she _had _to tell the others.

This thing-this thing had intelligence. There was no way it couldn't.

It certainly didn't have human intelligence, but it didn't need to in order to be dangerous. A titan like this could wipe out a good chunk of humanity in the walls before anything could take it down, if anything really could.

But why had it saved her? And why wasn't it looking back towards her?

The beast had been standing still for a couple seconds, exhaling steam clouds in a panting like motion as its ears twitched from side to side. It was waiting for something, but Mikasa had no idea what.

Then, without any warning, its face snapped to the right, locking onto something before it took off, leaving her in the dust and confused.

What had...what had just happened?

The titan had ignored her? And killed its own kind? But why?

Why was the question here as this titan defied everything she'd previously known within a span of five short minutes, then simply ran off to do whatever else it had planned.

It couldn't be too far, not at all, as she could still hear it bellowing, its cries vibrating within her chest as they carried on throughout the distance.

She was so out of it that she didn't even notice Connie grabbing her until she was being thrown onto a roof Connie screaming "What the fuck is that!" in her ear as he gestured towards the titan that had passed,no _saved _her.

"I don't know." She responded as she just continued to stare off into the distance where it continued to rampage. "I really don't know."


	10. The Trost Incident Pt2

Annie couldn't believe it.

Well, to be honest she really could, but she'd somewhat already accepted Eren's supposed death, and now here he was, standing in front of her, in titan form.

And holy shit was she glad that she had gotten to see Eren's titan beforehand, although it probably would have been fairly obvious regardless.

His titan was currently still rampaging around the area, slaughtering every titan it came across with a brutality that only Eren Jaeger would have and in some ways it was cathartic.

She knew it was him, it had to be him, because she'd never seen another titan look the way he did, had never seen a titan that held so much emotion, so much rage at well, anything really.

But of course she wasn't the only one to notice this behavior.

"Annie! Annie!" Connie screamed from just a bit ahead of her, still pointing towards Eren's titan (Although he certainly didn't know that it was Eren), "Holy fuck, did you see that titan?"

"Yeah, I...its been killing other titans right?"

"Has it? I just saw it go ham on the one in front of Mikasa, but has it really been killing other titans?"

"Oh, that's um, just what I heard from some others." Annie responded, suddenly realizing something. She knew what Eren's titan looked like, she knew that was Eren and he certainly wasn't dead. She knew that there was no way that titan would purposefully kill humans, but nobody else did.

They all thought that it was some random abnormal who suddenly appeared and was just killing titans. They thought that it could turn on them at some point, and probably would want to get rid of him as soon as he became less useful.

Of course, this wasn't the case and while Annie was grateful that her mission was no longer in such dire jeopardy (and that Eren was alive, although she'd certainly never admit it) in some ways this had made attempting to smuggle Eren out much harder.

The Survey Corps weren't supposed to return until later today, so that put her on a time limit to get things done and get them done quickly but there was one thing that concerned her. One big thing having to do with Eren.

She could still hear him roaring off in the distance, that same cry of rage, and while his movements seemed practiced and calculated to anybody else, she could see the sloppiness in each punch thrown. It was as if he was simply throwing himself at the titans without any thought as to how they would react.

And she'd seen this before.

Not necessarily with fights against mindless titans, but it was one of the things that they drilled into her head during training, her original training.

Eren wasn't in control. He was letting the power of the titans control him, strip him down to the most basic fighting instincts that he could still use effectively then use his body to achieve whatever goal he'd had when he shifted, and predictably it looked as if he had shifted out of rage.

Revenge was the easiest goal to give yourself when you needed to shift, as it would always be there and was a pretty concrete goal, but was also the most dangerous.

It was so easy to just lose yourself, drown in your emotions and power as you realized that this ability allowed you to do what you truly wanted, to get that revenge with nothing but a small cut and a bit of time, but it was never worth it.

They'd drilled that into all of the other shifters' heads as well. That attempting to shift in a rage will cause nothing but destruction and failure because in something as big and powerful as a titan they _needed _to be able to control themselves.

She'd gotten lucky earlier with Eren shifting, all the way back in the forest, then. He'd simply had a goal that allowed him to stay in control, but this time? This time she was just going to have to wait until he began to cool off and weaken.

She couldn't fight off a horde of mindless titans, humans attacking her, _and_ Eren's titan at the same time, so attempting to grab and go at the moment was out of the question.

She looked back at Bertholdt, who she had honestly forgotten about a bit, and saw him going over similar possibilities in his head, absentmindedly counting things on his fingers.

Once he noticed her staring at him, she gave a slight nod and curl of her fingers, a silent order of 'follow me' as she turned back around to where a good chunk of the group was still sitting, shocked.

"Bertholdt and I are going to head around there to see if we can find any other teams and tell them about the situation here." She called out to no one in particular. "Wouldn't want them killing such a powerhouse too early on."

"You sure?" Connie asked, eyeing her gas reserves. "You might want to head to fill up first."

"We've each got about a third of our gas left and it's important that we tell the others quickly, so we'll head over, spread the word, and then head back."

"If you're sure."

"Yeah I am." Annie responded, a faint smirk threatening to pull at the corner of her lips. "Be sure to save some of the gas for me."

And with that, the two were off, heading in the direction of Eren's rampage.

Of course, they had no intentions of meeting up with any other people who happened to be around Eren, as no person in their right mind would attempt to attack him through this mess of mindless titans, and even if they did, they were far more likely to get killed than to actually get to him, but they did need a relatively obscure place to figure out what the fuck they were going to do now.

"So what's the plan?" Bertholdt asked as soon as they were out of hearing range of everybody else. "Are we just going to try to grab him now?"

"No, not at all." Annie responded, shaking her head. "You still can't shift for a little while longer and while I could fight my way through a bunch of mindless titans and people, I'm not so sure about all of that and _then _having to fight Eren as well."

"He's not in control?"

"It doesn't look like he is at all."

"But I thought you said he was in control in the forest, what's the difference here?"

Annie bit her lip. She really didn't know for sure, but she had a bit of a theory. "I think he had a different goal here."

Bertholdt simply gave her a bit of a confused face before she continued with, "In the forest I think he only shifted because he wanted an answer to a question, versus here probably shifted because he either didn't want to die, or wanted to kill titans." She glanced over at Eren, covered in evaporating blood and heading back into the fray for more. "And with how it looks I'd place money on the latter."

He took a deep breath. "So we have a rampaging, possibly all powerful titan on our hands and we have to smuggle him out of here somehow. And it'll be awhile before I can shift again." That last part was added in as an afterthought, but he was almost certain Annie knew by now.

"And we're on a time limit."

"Fuck."

So things were looking pretty bleak, although Annie had to admit, the current situation was certainly better than what they thought they'd be facing before.

"What about Reiner?" Bertholdt suddenly asked after the two sat in contemplation for a moment. "You said earlier that you couldn't um, well really had no way to fight off so many parties at once, but if we added reiner into the mix, he could be your shield of sorts."

"We certainly could, but…" She trailed off. Reiner's behavior earlier didn't make her all that confident in involving him as a big part of the plan, especially considering that if it went south while she was shifted she had a very real possibility of being injured.

Or killed.

Plus two more hostile intelligent titans wouldn't help Eren's case if they did fail and he was caught. They'd simply lump him in with her group and execute them.

Assuming that they didn't want to them torture for information first.

Bertholdt gave her a glance, noticing that she'd trailed off. "Was he acting weird with you earlier as well?"

"Yeah." she responded, and that was the end of that. Neither of the two wanted to talk about it because the implications of Reiner's actions were...concerning to say the least, and if they couldn't trust him with parts of their mission, what could they trust him with?

"I'm sure it'll be um, totally fine!" Bertholdt said, half attempting to lighten the mood and half attempting to convince himself. "All we need to do is tell him about the plan and we'll be fine. Everything will be fine."

And for once, Annie decided to believe him.

Back at the supply tower, Armin was having a bit of a mental breakdown so he decided to form some plans, as one does.

While the vast majority of the people within the tower were useless, (let's be real here, a good chunk of them had assumed that they would never have to face a titan head on and as such weren't exactly prepared for this situation), there were a few who he could possibly round up in order to make a raid on the storage area below, as from what he'd heard there were really only seven or eight small titans down there.

Seven or eight.

He could deal with that. He could deal with it and it'd be fine.

The main issue, as always, was the lack of gas.

He'd already rounded up a small group of people who could be possible candidates for an attack on the storage room, but it wasn't as if all of them had gas to spare, and no matter how much he tried, no matter how much he pleaded, nobody was willing to give up a any of what they had.

And then he got worse news.

As he explained his plan to the group one person indignantly cried, "We-we can't maneuver in there, even if we did have gas!"

What?

According to part of the supply team, as _credible_ as they were, the supply area really was tiny, and with that many small titans in there maneuvering would be a death sentence.

Personally Armin thought they were cowards, but he did suppose they had somewhat of a point.

He'd either need some people who were better with gear or a different plan.

Which was when he was jerked out of his thoughts by a large crash from across the room, as well as the telltale sound of shattering glass.

Was it the titans?

So far none of them had attempted to break through any of the glass, simply milling around outside and waiting for any poor souls who happened to stray too close, but Armin knew that they wouldn't be waiting forever.

He had hoped he would have a little longer than this to think up a plan though.

As he moved towards the back of the building, as far away from any windows as possible he was knocked over by someone barreling into him, knocking him to his feet.

Who the fuck-

Oh.

It was Connie.

"Armin, man, you have no idea how happy I am to see you right now." Connie exclaimed breathlessly, pushing himself up off the floor and pulling Armin with him, and while Armin would have normally chided him on not looking where he lands, this time was an exception he supposed.

"Same...same to you Connie." Armin exhaled sharply. Damn did that hit hurt. "Have you seen Mikasa since...well, since you found me?"

"Oh yeah, she's actually with us."

Armin jolted up at that.

Mikasa was here? Holy shit that made everything so much easier.

But also more difficult.

He'd been mulling over how to tell her about the events that had led him to hole up in the supply depot, but so far had been fully successful in working himself up into a frenzy. Truth be told, he had no idea how she'd take the news, whether she'd be able to recover from the shock or not.

Walls knows he still hasn't recovered.

"Does she know?" Armin asked tentatively. "About, um the reason why I'm-"

"She knows about Eren." Connie responded blandly, the small bit of excitement that he normally seemed to hold slipping away from him for a moment.

"O-oh. Well, um, who else is with you?"

"Jean, Annie, Bertholdt-well actually Annie and Bertholdt went off to warn the others not to attack that one titan, but they'll probably be back in a couple minutes."

"Is there an abnormal or something that we need to know about?" Armin asked, confused. If there was something that dangerous out there it wouldn't even be worth it to tell others not to attack it, meaning that Annie and Bertholdt were simply on a fools errand. One that would lead to their deaths.

"Oh the fuckers abnormal alright." Called out Jean as he moved towards Connie and Armin. As he walked over Armin could see Mikasa still brushing herself off but making her way over to the group nonetheless. "It's ignoring us and killing any other titan it can get its hands on out there."

Armin's eyes widened. So the rumors were true? There was a titan attacking other titans out there? But...but nobody had ever heard of _anything_ like that before! Even on the Survey Corps' endless missions out into the unknown they'd never seen any proof of titan on titan combat, not even over humans.

So why now? Why now at Trost and not at Shiganshina? Why now and not during any expeditions?

Sensing Armin's disbelief, Mikasa piped up, "I was on the ground, about to be eaten when it appeared out of nowhere and decked the titan above me."

"So it...it really exists then," Armin muttered, more to himself than anyone around him, "a titan that is here to help humanity."

"I don't know if I'd say it wants to help humanity-" Jean started but was cut off by Armin rather enthusiastically saying, "We should lead it here!"

"What?" Cried out quite a few members of the small group he'd accumulated.

"Ok, ok, I know it sounds weird, but what if we led it here and just let it go on a rampage outside of the tower?" Armin reasoned "We could let it clear out a path of titans and allow us to escape. Or at least not be in imminent danger."

Armin knew that this plan was risky, but fuck, everything that they did here was risky, what's one more danger to add.

Jean was the first one to speak his thoughts, saying what a good chunk of the group had been thinking, "What makes you think it won't turn on us the second it's killed its share of titans? What if it's simply trying to get rid of competition?"

Armin frowned. To be honest he didn't. A titan like this was completely new to him, new to everybody around him, and it certainly wasn't normal. They couldn't depend on it to act passively once all of its current enemies were destroyed.

"I don't know what it wants, but would you rather just sit here and wait for all of the titans outside right now to kill us, or just try and give it a chance?" He pointed out, crossing his arms. "Besides we have some issues to take care of before we can even think about heading out again."

"Issues?" Mikasa asked, poking her head through the crowd.

"Right now there's no way to get gas." Armin explained. "Apparently a couple of smaller titans snuck in and are just crowding around the gas supplies."

Jean covered his face as he looked at the ground. "No way…"

"Do any of you guys have gas left?" Armin pleaded looking around the group only to be left with averted eyes and mutterings of "Not enough." But as he continued to look around he noticed something. There were far more people here than there had been before, and all of them were much more reliable.

The titans were small, but all around the same height and even with minimal gas, if he spread it out among multiple people then…

Armin looked up just in time to see Annie and Bertholdt make their appearance and realized that yes, this really could work.

Armin's plan almost sounded like suicide with extra steps, but Annie had to give it to him. What he'd thought up was ingenious, but even more impressive as she realized that this could actually _work_.

It'd require their full cooperation and a lot of balls, but it wasn't like they had anything else to lose so why not try, and while Annie was certainly interested in seeing how this whole event would play out, she was more interested in getting her plan relayed to Reiner.

Bertholdt's anxiousness must have started rubbing off on her because she could feel her hands getting clammy as she strode over to where Reiner was sitting, preparing for his role as an attacker up in the rafters (Something that she feared much more than she'd let on) and quickly led him away from the majority of the group.

To a place where they wouldn't be heard.

"Reiner, Bertholdt and I have come up with a new plan for our mission, but we're going to need your help with it." She whispered quickly in no more than a whisper. If people found out exactly what they were trying to do right now they were fucked.

"Huh?" Reiner responded, confused. "No offense, but Armin's plan seemed pretty solid. Not sure how me playing a different role is going to change much."

Fuck, this is partially what she'd been afraid of. "No you idiot, our mission!"

"Isn't our mission to free up the supply depot right now?"

"No it's-" Annie let out a deep calming breath before she got too loud. What the hell was going on with Reiner today? "To retrieve Eren we need your help, you got that?"

"Eren's dead." Responded Reiner bluntly, and wow what a great way to sugarcoat it.

Although Annie was fairly certain that nobody could hear them, she still decided against plainly stating who exactly that intelligent titan was outside of the clocktower and said, "You've seen that titan killing other titans right? Long ears, no lips, and lightning bolt teeth right?"

"Yeah I-"

"Does it remind you of anything? Of anybody?!"

"I-" Reiner's face scrunched up in confusion and that was when Annie really realized that she had a problem on her hands. "No?"

Fuck.

Reiner wasn't acting, nor was he just being an idiot, as she'd literally just spelled out exactly who that titan was, and fuck he'd seen Eren's titan before! There was something wrong, whether it be with his memory or mental state and Annie didn't know which one she preferred. Either way she certainly didn't trust Reiner with being a big part of their mission at the moment, and really didn't know if he could ever be again.

She was hoping that the oddness she'd first encountered was simply shock, a blast of trauma and dissociation that had led to him momentarily acting odd around her and Bertholdt, but by now she was more than a bit worried that this simply wasn't the case.

That this would be much more of an issue than she had originally bargained for.

Noticing her scowling Reiner asked, "Is everything ok? I've got no clue what you're talking about, but we've got to get to our stations soon. Armin's depending on us."

"Yeah." Annie responded, because to be honest she had no idea what else to do. "Let's head back."

Holy shit.

_Holy shit!_

Armin's plan had actually worked! It had worked and they were able to clear out the basement area and Annie thought that her heart would never beat at a normal pace again because fuck that was more scarier than she had thought it'd be, fuck.

She placed a hand over her chest to steady her breathing as half of the people around her had a mental breakdown while the other half cheered so loud she feared that they'd attract more titans.

Which was a very real possibility, so they had to work fast.

By popular demand Mikasa had been given the first pair of gas canisters and was tasked with surveying the area outside and keeping any of the remaining small titans from getting in, a task which Annie did not envy, but was a little bit annoyed with.

Who had designed this so smaller titans could fit in here anyway?

As she mulled about the area, absentmindedly checking in on people she wasn't supposed to care about, a small voice in the back of her head told her to quit stalling. That she needed to tell Bertholdt that Reiner wouldn't be in any sense reliable and that they were going to have to think of something else, but…

She couldn't.

Just thinking about the issue made her sick to her stomach because she really didn't have any other plan, which meant that this whole endeavor was just getting more and more likely to just be another failure on her long list of failures.

Except this one was much deadlier.

Yet it wasn't as if she could avoid Bertholdt forever, and despite her valiant efforts she could already see that he was approaching her.

"Have you told Riener about the plan?" He asked, voice barely above a whisper. With all the chatter and excitement around about finally,_ finally _not having to worry about running out of gas, it wasn't likely that they would be heard regardless of how loud they spoke, but it was always better safe than sorry.

"He doesn't know what we're talking about." She spat.

"What?"

"He acted like I was crazy for saying we need to retrieve Eren. Said he didn't recognize his titan at all."

Bertholdt began to wring his hands nervously. What the hell was happening? "Are you sure it's just because he didn't see Eren's titan? I mean, I know that its pretty distinct, and uh, kinda easy to describe but-"

"He didn't even fucking recognize that he had a mission to fufill." Annie said a bit louder than she should have. The pair could see Connie turn his head to look at the two before they waved him off. Placing her hands on her forehead Annie continued with, "I don't know what's happening, but I don't think that we'll be able to rely on him right now."

She could see Bertholdt mull over their remaining options, which were getting more and more scarce as time passed. Neither of them had any idea of how long it'd been other than a substantial amount of time, and the Survey Corps were due back by dark.

If they wanted to make a move, they'd have to do so soon, but now with the majority of the cadets having gas…

Fuck! Why had she helped them out? Why had she given into Armin's pleading and grandiose plans as he referred to them as a cohesive unit? Why had she considered herself a part of that unit?

Once she knew that Mikasa was out of gas and the majority of the elite squad was dead she should have shifted, consequences be damned, grab the people she needed and ran. It wasn't as if anyone could catch her or attack her without any gas.

But she hadn't been thinking about that at the time.

She'd been thinking about how Reiner was abandoning his mission, abandoning _them _in favor of the other cadets. She was putting her emotions first and any scrap of logical reasoning she had had suddenly decided to disappear from her brain.

God, Reiner wasn't the only one acting odd today.

"So what do you want to do now?" Bertholdt asked, crossing his arms over his chest. It was obvious he was frustrated and whether it be from her actions, Reiner's or just this whole goddamn situation she'd never know. "Sit and wait until Eren tires himself out and simply hope that the Survey Corps don't show up early?"

"That's really all we can do for now, unless you've got a better plan." Annie retorted watching in a sort of smug satisfaction as his frustrations seemed to pop like a wet balloon under the realization. They really didn't have anything else they could do at the moment.

Well, that wasn't totally right Annie supposed. Eren already had eyes on him, just waiting for the moment to attack or for his titan to be dealt a deadly blow, and while they didn't know that large body held a human within, Annie and Bertholdt did.

They'd have to shift their focus from retrieving Eren to keeping him a secret, which was a lot harder than it sounded without any other context.

"There is one thing we can do." Annie started. "If we stay by Eren, we could wait for the moment he emerges or cut him out ourselves and keep his identity a secret."

"So it'll just look like it was a random titan rather than a shifter?"

"Exactly."

She could practically see the gears turning in Bertholdt's brain as he thought about the concept. On one hand, he had been expecting to be able to grab Eren and leave today, and wasn't the most thrilled about the change of plans, but on the other hand…

It was really all they had.

He held good faith in Annie's skills, but there would simply be too many enemies for her to fight reliably, and that could get all four of them killed.

At the end of the day it was safer to just hover and try to keep Eren a secret, hell they could probably even manipulate him into coming with them willingly by telling him what would happen now that everybody knew there was a bloodthirsty titan that could be controlled by what was essentially a kid.

In the end he agreed with her, as he always ended up doing. "Ok then. Let's find that titan."

They didn't exactly have to go far in order to find what they were looking for, as once they rose out of the basement they were met with a shocked crowd of people-what the hell, weren't they supposed to be clearing the area?-and a roar that almost had her clapping her hands over her ears.

Ah. That would be why they hadn't left.

It seems that their favorite shifter had come to them, which certainly saved some gas.

Which Annie couldn't see much (Something she refused to believe had anything to do with her height) Bertholdt could see the scene just fine and relayed the situation to her.

It was a slaughter, which was to be expected.

What was not to be expected was the damage that Eren's titan had taken.

Despite being comparatively more intelligent, his titan had little to no chance while it was being swarmed, already having lost an arm and a good chunk of flesh over it's ribcage. Bertholdt seemed to be just in time to watch him lose his other arm, a surefire mark of a losing shifter.

He wanted to move forward, he really did, but regardless of how tall he was or how high the ceiling was, it simply wasn't safe for him to fire any of his wires around such a crowd. He needed the crowd to clear, a distraction to happen, something, _anything_-

And his answer came in the form of Armin screaming, "_What the hell are you guys doing_! We need to protect it**!**"

Although neither Bertholdt nor Annie would normally peg the small blond as intimidating, they had to admit that he could certainly be a bit terrifying when he wanted to.

Within the mad scramble of legs the two managed to launch themselves out of the tower, landing on an area just above where Eren's titan seemed to be falling, finally losing balance as it's back crashed into the tower, slumping over, nape up.

Holy shit, this was their chance. Their chance to grab him and make it out of here and nobody would think twice about it except…

Except Armin had his eyes on the titan as well.

"I think it's dead! We should head out into the field!" Bertholdt called out to him, attempting to lure him away from where Eren could emerge at any moment. Although he probably wouldn't. There was far too much steam escaping from his still open wounds.

Eren was healing, and he was healing fast.

Despite being a bit of a distance away Armin shook his head and called out, "I don't think so! It looks like it's healing!"

Fuck Armin and his stupid fucking smarts.

Pretty sick of yelling, Bertholdt decided to move closer to where Armin was perched, Annie taking the place he had been prior as he asked, "Shouldn't we be getting away from it then? In case it decides that it actually does want to eat us?"

Armin gave him a nervous look as he bit his lip. "Ok, I know this is going to sound crazy but I kind of have a plan." He pointed down to the still healing titan, "You remember that big piece of rubble that was left in the town square in case a similar situation to Shiganshina happened?"

Bertholdt nodded. The plan had been to use a specialized squad to place it in front of the gate once they saw the armored or colossal approaching, but due to the very nature of their appearance, Bertholdt knew that this plan was wishful thinking at best.

Plus he was pretty sure the team that was supposed to move the rock was dead, so what the hell did Armin plan to do with it?

"Well I was thinking, that titan seems to want to help us right? And it seems at least a little bit intelligent so…" he trailed off continuing to stare down at the titan. "I thought that maybe it could understand us, at least a little bit. And maybe we could lead it to the boulder and get him to lift it in place of the special operations team."

Bertholdt was more than a bit shocked. Mostly because if he hadn't known exactly what lie within that titan he would have written off what Armin said as the ramblings of a crazy planner, but his idea did have some merit.

If Eren hadn't been on a rampage, if Eren could have understood them at all, there would be a very real possibility that Armin's plan could have worked, but as it stood it looked like he was simply grasping at straws.

Bertholdt knew that it was because of the pressure that he was currently facing, the pressure to make everything better, to create a plan that would fix what they needed just like he had done within the supply depot and couldn't help but feel a bit bad for him.

"Armin...I uh, don't think that's going to work." Bertholdt responded softly, watching as Armin's face fell. It was obvious that he was looking for some sort of support in this, someone to tell him that his plan wasn't crazy, that he could fix this, but Bertholdt wasn't going to be the one to do it.

He probably should have told Mikasa first.

"I mean, we don't know until we try right?" Armin pleaded. "If we can just get him to that boulder we might be able to make him understand, make him understand how important it is to plug up the wall!"

"Armin…" Bertholdt started, honestly feeling a little bad for the boy. He'd lost so much in one day and now there were hundreds of people relying on him to think up something else to get them out of this mess but he didn't get to continue that thought because something shifted beneath them.

They both watched as the titan pushed himself up, having already regained its arms and slowly moved forward.

Bertholdt gave a quick glance to Annie who nodded back at him, the indirect conversation clear. They needed to follow that titan.

Eren was on the move.

Everything was hot.

Actually, he took that back. Everything was hot and sticky, feeling like a thick syrupy jelly had enveloped him, wrapping around his arms and legs like the world's warmest and most disgusting blanket, but he couldn't really bring himself to hate it.

The warmth was relaxing, pulling him in and out of consciousness and it continued to try and lull him back to sleep.

Yet he kept trying to resist.

He could hear something,_ someone _above him talking, but his fuzzy brain couldn't actually make out any of the words that were being said. He just kept getting small bits of dialogue in an oddly familiar voice.

"-ce o-at…. tow- re in ca-tion…-hina happ-"

Ugh.

The voice was at the front of his mind, as if it were a person that he'd heard a lot from, but for the life of him he couldn't place it. It didn't help that he was only getting little bits of the voice and the second he tried to hold a thought it felt as if it would simply slip and fall out of his mind.

Walls, what had he been doing?

Actions and images swirled around his head without any real meaning, a burst of steam near his face, small explosions behind him, and an image of a torn up roof all flashed through his head rapidly, but none of them really made any sense.

It was as if he was watching a slideshow of somebody else's life, it was like riding a horse and having no clue where it was going.

Where was he anyway?

He remembered that he had been trying to do...well something. Somebody had been calling out for him, reaching to him, but why couldn't he remember?

The voice above him grew larger and more clear, and finally he could tell it was...Armin? And someone else but he couldn't quite place just yet.

Why was Armin above him? What was he saying? Fuck where was he?

And why couldn't he remember what had just happened? There was a titan, and screaming, and pain, more pain than he had ever felt before-

Eren felt as if someone had dunked him in cold water despite his heated surroundings.

He had been eaten.

He'd been devoured by one of the beasts that he'd for so long vowed to kill without even taking down a single one of them, he'd been devoured as a failure.

Was that why it was so warm in here?

Though that didn't feel right. Something was telling Eren that he was safe, protected even wherever he was. He didn't feel the sticky sense of fear, the finality he'd felt as he'd slid down the titan's throat, which meant something was different, something had changed while he was asleep.

His eyes snapped open to the view ahead of him, the ground far too high up and far too blurry for him to have simply been up in the air suspended by nothing but his 3DMG, which really only left one option.

He had shifted.

At some point between the time that he had been swallowed and now, he had shifted and he couldn't fucking figure out when.

Had anybody else seen? Were they discussing how to get rid of him as they spoke? Were they just waiting for him to exit the shell of the monster that was currently protecting him and strike the moment he exited?

Walls, what if he'd hurt somebody?

Thoughts and scenarios ran wild through his head as he tried to think back to something, anything, that would tell him what he'd done, how he'd ended up here, slumped against a building taller than himself at the moment and listening to Armin talk to Bertholdt-was it Bertholdt? It sounded like it but he'd never really paid much attention to what he'd sounded like-discuss something.

"I thought that maybe it could understand us, at least a little bit. And maybe we could lead it to the boulder and get him to lift it in place of the special operations team."

Armin's voice rang clear through his head as he realized that yes, they were in fact talking about him, but not in the way that he assumed.

Armin had a plan. Armin had a plan for him, something that only he could do.

Something that could save part of humanity.

He remembered that boulder, oh he remembered it well. It had been one of the things he'd relentlessly made fun of a while back, thinking that the colossal would simply be killed before it had any chance at causing more damage to the walls, after all they were much more prepared this time right?

But he'd been wrong. He'd been so wrong and now they were in this fucking mess, and Sina, how many people had died while he'd been out?

(How many had been by his own hand?)

As much as Eren didn't think through his actions, he knew he wasn't stupid. Even if he had focused exclusively on killing titans in this form-the best case scenario-what were the chances that not a single person got caught under his foot? What were the chances that not a single person was crushed by his hands as he attempted to achieve his goal of killing all the titans?

Fuck, why couldn't he remember?

He could still hear Armin and Bertholdt above him, bickering about the plausibility of him listening to commands and actually being able to carry the boulder, which was when the first important realization came to his mind.

Neither Bertholdt nor Armin were making any indication that they knew who he was, or even that his titan was controlled by a human. While Armin questioned whether his intelligence was high enough to understand commands, Bertholdt continued to shoot him down.

And if Armin didn't know…

It was very likely that nobody else knew who he was either.

He could still escape, get out of his titan quickly and make up some bullshit about cutting himself out of the titan's stomach except-

Armin had seen his leg.

And there was no way that it hadn't regenerated while he'd been within the titan.

So he was really going to be discovered no matter what huh.

The least he could do is one final action for humanity, one last thing that would allow for him to give back to everything that he had known.

One last thing to protect his friends.

He was going to seal up that wall.

Once the titan started moving Armin had a bit of a suspicion as to where it was heading, but had written it off as wishful thinking at first.

After all, even if the titan truly was able to understand human speech, Bertholdt and he were much too far away and were speaking far too quietly to be heard properly. There was no way. There was just no way.

Yet the beast moved as if it were on a mission, suddenly ignoring titans that it would have previously gone out of it's way to attack and instead moved right towards a certain spot, right towards that boulder.

But there was no way that it was actually doing what Armin had suggested. It couldn't be.

Regardless, he told everybody he'd met on the way there, every single person who stopped to listen, and probably about twenty others who didn't, that there was one thing they had to do.

They had to protect that titan.

He knew it sounded crazy, fuck, he sounded crazy to himself, but there was something in his gut that told him that he could trust this thing. That it wouldn't let him down.

That it wanted the best for him.

And walls he hoped he was right.

Bertholdt and Annie had been following him as he flew around, talking about something among themselves, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

This was happening. This was really happening!

As the titan approached the town square, the boulder became visible, and woah.

That thing was a lot bigger than Armin remembered.

Yet he still continued to bark orders, telling people to get into formation, to clear the area, to do anything that would give this titan a flying chance at actually succeeding in sealing up the wall, and _walls where was Mikasa._

She would know what to do. How to take out the most titans, and how to keep them away from this titan, but she was nowhere to be seen at the moment, and holy shit the _titan was lifting the boulder._

Armin felt like he was gonna cry.

Scratch that, he could feel tears begin to pool in his eyes and blur his vision as the boulder moved, shifted beneath the titans massive hands as it was lifted off the ground and onto the beasts back, and he knew that he, no humanity finally had a chance.

They just couldn't screw this up.

That rock was heavy.

By the Walls, it was so fucking heavy.

Eren felt as if every muscle in his body was splitting open, just barely supporting the fragile ribcage that kept him upright, hell considering a titan's healing ability they really may be splitting open as he walked.

But he couldn't stop.

Every time he even so much as thought about stopping he'd hear Armin's voice behind him, yelling to the tens of people surrounding him to protect him, to attack the surrounding titans at all cost, because this was all that they had left.

Because this was humanity's hope.

And Eren had to give it to him, Armin really was good at on the fly motivational speeches.

But it wasn't just that. It was the screams of the dying as they threw themselves at titans in a desperate bid to keep them away from him, it was the fear of failure, of simply _not _being able to plug up the wall because what would happen then?

If he stopped now, there was no way that he'd be able to get back up, he'd just be a mass of limp flesh lying against a boulder until further notice, and there was absolutely no way that everyone would be able to protect him while he took another quick nap within his titan form.

If he stopped now, there'd be nothing stopping more and more titans from pouring in through the gaping hole in the wall. There'd be nothing stopping the mindless slaughter of the few friends he had left, the few people who had survived up until now.

If he stopped now there'd be nothing but a single wall between the titans and Wall Rose, and he'd already seen how that panned out.

That didn't make any of this any easier though.

His whole body felt like it was being crushed, pushed beneath the massive weight that he supported using his head and neck, and fuck if he had been human at the moment he would have been worried about how long that crick in his neck would last.

But he wasn't.

At the moment he was a titan, he was the last possible thing that humanity could rely on, the last hope.

He'd most certainly be killed after this.

And fuck, didn't that thought hurt?

He was here, ready to lay down his life for people, and because of what he was, because of something he didn't have any control over, they would be ready to end him at any moment.

Although he guessed it couldn't be helped.

As Eren continued to walk he kept repeating that phrase in his head. That he'd be fine with his death as long as humanity got to live on, as long as his friends were fine.

That he'd accepted the situation.

Besides, maybe they wouldn't kill him right away. Maybe they'd give him a chance.

Yet as he rounded the corner he could hear more shouting, more commands from people who weren't on the ground attacking titans but rather moving weapons around.

Cannons to be exact.

He knew the orders, fuck he knew every single one of them, and just like that his fragile dream that they'd see his usefulness, that they'd let him live to see another day, that he'd get to speak to Armin and Mikasa one last time was shattered.

He'd never get to argue with Jean again, he'd never get to see Annie's small smile when he finally did something right again, he'd never get to apologize to Armin and Mikasa for being such an asshole for the past couple months.

He'd never get to see the ocean.

And that was the moment Eren realized that no, he wasn't satisfied with this.

He wasn't going to go out as some kind of sacrifice for humanity because he could do so much more, fuck he had to do so much more, be so much more.

He was given this ability for a reason, whatever it be, and he wasn't satisfied with simply throwing away his second chance at life for a single action to help humanity.

He was there to make a change, to protect, and fuck, he was gonna do it regardless of the consequences.

The titan looked as if it were being crushed beneath the rock, it's sturdy body creating heavy dents in the ground wherever it stepped due to the extra weight it was carrying, but Armin held nothing but hope for the being.

It was getting closer and closer to the gate where it'd be able to place the rock back down, and he could only hope that that was the titan's true intentions, but what else could it be?

It seemed to similar to be a coincidence, I mean what were the chances of him saying the plan to Bertholdt just above the titan, and then having that titan decide to complete those exact actions on its own?

Which left one option, an option he both feared and hoped for.

This titan was intelligent, and furthermore could understand human speech to at least some extent. He already assumed that it was intelligent based on the accounts of other recruits, but this was something totally different.

A benevolent titan that could understand human speech was more than a game changer, and could be a victory sentence if they treated it properly, but that was the issue there.

Armin wasn't stupid, he knew that no matter what this titan did it'd be treated the same as the rest of its kin once it stopped being useful to humans, once the perceived threat managed to outweigh the benefits, regardless of how numerous they could be.

It was already happening anyway.

"Don't shoot!" He screamed at the numerous soldiers who were continuing to set up cannons around the area, still drawing titans away from the titan they were aiming at. They certainly weren't willing to give up the small shot that they had at sealing the gate, but it was clear everything was chaos.

Nobody had ever seen a titan like this before and people were scared, that much was obvious, but what wasn't helping were the numerous orders that were flying around.

And with no consensus on who to listen to, people simply followed what they knew. This titan was a possible threat, and they had been trained to take out threats.

Yet as that titan approached closer and closer Armin could see the fear and uncertainty continue to build on the soldiers faces as the thunderous footsteps approached closer and closer.

"Get in position!" Somebody yelled, and while Armin had no clue if it was a squad leader or not it probably didn't matter to anybody else. They were desperate for guidance and were looking for whoever could give it.

"Stop!" Armin cried back in retaliation. "That titan hasn't hurt anyone! It's helping us!" but it looked as if his efforts were futile. A couple of heads turned towards him, torn between the reality that they were seeing and their previous knowledge but nobody moved out of position.

He was going to have to try much harder to get these people to see his point and fast. After all, the titan was still rapidly approaching.

"Shouldn't we try to keep it alive for now? It's killed more titans in a single hour than most soldiers could hope to in their entire life." He reasoned, placing his arms in front of him in a placating gesture. He didn't need these people to be scared of him, he just needed them to listen.

"Its a fucking titan!" came a panic stricken cry from somewhere in the crowd, and just like that the little bit of progress Armin had made was rapidly disappearing, dispersed throughout the crowd and into thin air as those footsteps got closer and closer.

"But this one is obviously different! Shouldn't we at least try to capture it for study? Maybe we could find more!"

"And what, just let it kill us when it gets the chance?"

"We don't have any proof that that is what it wants to do!"

"We don't have any reason to think that it won't!"

Fuck, fuck, this was bad. It was fairly obvious by this point that regardless of what he said they would come back with something that, while not a sound argument, just served to strengthen the idea that they needed to attack and quickly, and besides, the titan was almost to the wall.

But he wasn't about to give up just yet.

"As soldiers we swore to our lives for the resurrection of humanity, to the protection of the last of us who live within these walls! At this very moment we have a weapon who has completed these goals better than we could ever hope to within a lifetime and_ we are here questioning whether to let it live or no_t?! So it may turn out to be dangerous in the end, but isn't that all the more reason to let it live for now? For all we know there could be more of the same out there, only much less benevolent than this one here, so why not use it as a chance to learn more? To give ourselves a leg up? Fellow soldiers this is our chance to gain a victory for humanity, so I beg of you please,_ let it live_!"

As Armin scanned through the crowd he gasped for breath. Was it enough to save the titan for the time being? Was it enough to at least distract them for the time being so some of the more rational minds within the crowd to take over and continue giving orders?

While the crowd stood shocked, Armin saw one soldier towards the front whip his head away from where he was standing, towards the titans, and in that moment Armin knew he had failed.

"It's at the gate! Get ready to fire!"

"No, listen to me!" Armin screamed. "We can't-we can't do this!"

But it was far too late. The cannons were in position and the titan was right in front of the gate ready to seal it.

Except that wasn't what happened.

He watched, slack jawed as the titan kicked its right foot through the ground, dragging the appendage through dirt and stone, and spun itself around so that it was facing the cannons

The beast seemed to freeze for a moment, and time seemed to slow down as Armin questioned whether he'd been wrong. Maybe this titan wasn't benevolent. Maybe it was carrying the boulder for its own purposes.

Maybe everyone else was right, it really did want to end humanity just like all of its other kin, and Armin was the one being played for a fool here.

He could hear the screaming of his fellow soldiers as they quickly abandoned their positions in favor of some other place, anywhere that wasn't the boulder's predicted path of travel, but Armin was frozen. He simply sat, staring up at the beast as it held the object that could either end or save his life above it's massive bulk.

And for a second it almost seemed as if it was staring back at him.

Yet as soon as Armin noticed, the titan was moving again, yet not forwards as he had previously been doing.

In one swift motion, it stepped backwards, through the gate as it threw the rock down behind it, sealing off Trost from any remaining titans, as well as itself.

And then Armin didn't know _what_ to think.


	11. The One Where Eren is MIA

The Survey Corps arrived around three hours later, having had to change their course in order to avoid the large swath of titans that had been congregating around the wall, and they arrived to complete chaos.

"The fuck is this?" Levi asked, while cringing away at the sight of the streets he'd expected to be relatively pristine-well, as pristine as filthy public streets could get-coated in blood and rubble, a sight that had become far too familiar over the past five years.

When they'd entered Wall Rose through the Caleneth district they hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, nothing that would have really alerted them to any major issues that had occured where they were originally supposed to enter though other than the usual amount of titans there, but as they rode on the rumors began to spread.

And by the Walls did they spread fast.

First it was a rumor that some of the cadets who were supposed to be working on the wall royally fucked up in some way, and then it was of cadets and full fledged military personnel alike abandoning their positions, fleeing into Wall Rose and even towards the Inner city for who knows what reason.

Of course rumors were par for the course when anything when bad by this point, as curious minds and those who simply didn't trust their leader enough always assumed that any small change of plans was due to a catastrophic event or something going wrong with supplies, but to be honest, it was rarely ever anything that big.

And while Levi certainly found the useless blathering of idiots who had no clue what they were talking about endlessly annoying, even he had to admit it was a bit amusing seeing the new recruits shit their pants simply because Erwin decided to shift their course slightly to the left.

Yet something was certainly different this time.

Even before he'd seen the wreck that was now the city of Trost there'd been an uneasy feeling in Levi's gut, as if there was something he should know, should have put together by now but he simply didn't have enough information to.

After all, it wasn't as if he was a genius like Erwin, he was simply here to get shit done, and get it done well.

Though, all things considered, seeing Trost in the state that it was in was not the most shocking part about the whole situation.

It was that there were absolutely no titans.

He'd seen this kind of destruction before, fuck there were miles and miles of it just outside the walls of Trost. Miles of buildings that had been bashed by uncaring bodies, towers with dents that couldn't have been made by anything human, and the remains of people who had been used for nothing but a quick meal for beasts that didn't need to eat.

Yet the fact that they saw none was making his troops uneasy, making him uneasy, as they weren't exactly hard to miss, but that was the issue. There was no screaming, there was no crashing of giants ahead of them, there was just nothing.

In order to facilitate integration into the demolished city as well as to possibly provide aid for any of those who may have been injured within whatever...event had occurred Erwin ordered them to be split of into their normal field designated squads, something that Levi would have to admit make him more anxious than he thought it should have, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Something had happened and he had a sneaking suspicion that titans had everything to do with it.

Their fears were confirmed when they came across their first titan pellet.

Every soldier under his command was immediately on guard, walls how could they not be? There was no way for a titan pellet to be here without the direct presence of titans and while Levi supposed that it could simply be a joke from the Garrison-a really sick and distasteful joke-he ultimately concluded that there was no way for any of them to pull something like this off.

Not because they lacked the machinery or manpower to do so, as Hanji could probably do something like this on her own given enough time, but because they were far too spineless.

His thoughts were justified when a rather frazzled looking woman came flying in off to the side as his men drew their blades at the sound.

"Rico Brzenska of the Alpha squad!" She shouted as she pulled herself into a salute, and what the hell had been going on?

At a quick glance Levi could see that not only was she missing almost all of her blades but her gas was low as well. She seemed exhausted and her hair was rumpled in a familiar way that he knew could only be due to extended flight.

It was obvious that she had been fighting at some point, titans or otherwise and with all the evidence towards the former Levi had to admit that the circumstances were not looking good.

But if there had truly been a breech like five years ago that still begged the question, where were all the titans?

Placing his left arm upwards in an effort to placate his men he responded, "Captain Levi of the Second squad. What is going on here?"

He watched as she pulled her mouth into a tight line. There was something that she was keeping from them, something that she didn't want to admit but Levi was not a patient man.

He didn't have all day to wait for her to spit whatever she had to say out.

"Soldier I'll repeat myself one more time." He spat, pulling his face into his usual glare. "What the fuck is going on here."

"Sir...The Wall was breached."

Armin didn't know what was happening.

Well, scratch that, he knew exactly what was happening but simply couldn't understand why.

After the wall had been sealed he'd spent a good amount of time staring in shock, wondering if what he just saw really happened before he was finally brought off to the side and designated a role for clean up. Not that he was really able to do much anyway.

From what he saw Annie and Mikasa were single handedly eradicating any titan who dared continue to exist within Trost but he realized why they had specifically given him a designation.

It was to keep an eye on him he thought belatedly as some members of the Garrison roughly shoved his hands into a cold pair of handcuffs.

They were arresting him?

Armin couldn't do much but stare in shock as a person pulled him onto a horse, a horse that had certainly not been there about an hour ago when the wall was sealed-they must have grabbed it from one of the surrounding hunting villages during the clean up-and was ordered not to resist.

Truth be told, Armin didn't have any plans to resist, Walls he didn't have any plans to do anything. He still had no idea what he was even being arrested for.

He hadn't run like so many others who had abandoned their positions once they had learned that there was even a chance that they would have to be fighting titans, hell he'd even made it possible to reclaim the supply depot!

But apparently it was something else entirely as he didn't see anyone else being taken away in chains, it was just him.

So he simply sat and watched as the horse he was chained to was led away from the battlefront, towards the gate leading to the rest of Wall Rose, and out into a vast expanse of land.

An expanse of land he'd helped to protect.

Eventually curiosity got the better of him as he leaned forward in an attempt to get closer to the man on his horse ahead of him and asked, "Um...may I know what I'm being detained for?" In a voice as loud as he dared.

The man simply continued on his merry way, making no indication that he had even heard Armin or if he did was simply ignoring him for some reason.

"Um." Armin asked a little louder this time and apparently that got the man's attention.

"What'd you want, kid." He asked gruffly, only taking a moment to pause and glance back at Armin before returning his eyes to the vast expanse of green ahead of him.

Now that bothered Armin a bit, but it wasn't as if he was in any place to be making complaints so he only reiterated his question, once more asking, "What am I being detained for?"

The man turned back to him and stared for much longer this time, a look of disbelief on his face. "You really don't know?"

Armin shook his head. It wasn't as if anyone had made any attempt to tell him and there weren't any laws he knew he broke.

"Kid, you're being arrested for fraternization with a titan."

There wasn't much that stunned Levi anymore after having grown up in the bowels of Sina and being a part of the Survey Corps for many years.

Titans climbing trees? Seen that, seen it more than once. People complaining because their son's body was eaten and therefore not able to be taken back? All the time. People crying in relief rather than fear when they first see a titan because it is more stress inducing to be worried all the time? Not as common, but yes, it had happened before.

But hearing that the Wall had been breached then sealed within less than a day and by a benevolent titan no less? Well forgive him for originally thinking that that Brzenska woman was suffering from some serious war psychosis.

Yet the more he thought about it, the more the whole scenario made sense. Not the benevolent and maybe intelligent titan part mind you because that was something he had yet to wrap his head around, but the lack of titans coupled with what was very obviously the residue of a titan invasion really only gave one solution.

He kept those thoughts within his head though, as he really didn't want to be dealing with explaining his thoughts on the event to the rest of his squad, although those who had heard bits of the conversation were already spreading their own rumors, until he'd consulted with Erwin and Hanji.

Erwin would know what to do. What to say to calm everyone down.

He always did.

So Levi rode on at a relatively slow canter, taking care to look out for anyone pinned beneath debris or struggling but he couldn't find much. All of those he was able to find were either already dead or far too buried to be saved anyway.

It seemed that whatever clean-up crew had already been sent out had done a pretty good job.

With the squads fast pace it wasn't long before they were able to make it through the city, marveling in the sheer destruction that continued to get worse and worse the closer they got to the front of the city, the closer they got to the gate they were originally supposed to enter through.

The sight awaiting them was nothing short of unbelievable.

The boulder that had been planned to be placed in front of the wall in case the colossal appeared was there, doing the job that it had been kept in the town for, and while Levi would have originally assumed that the Garrison had gotten their shit together and done something right for once, that would be ignoring the massive handprints pressed into the side of the boulder.

They were a size that Levi was all too familiar with. A size of hands that he regularly avoided and sliced to bits whenever they came too near for his liking.

So that woman hadn't been lying then.

He continued to stare at the handprints in disbelief because what else was he supposed to do? They'd never even begun to come across moderately intelligent titans much less a benevolent one who was willing to help humanity, so yes, this was quite a bit of a shock.

It was enough of a shock that he didn't even notice when Erwin rode over to him, General Pixis in tow, jolting a slight bit when Erwin addressed him.

He saw Erwin open his mouth, probably to give a far too long and winded speech that Levi would simply tune out after a minute or so, so he cut Erwin off prematurely, turning directly to Pixis and asking, "So is anybody going to tell me what the fuck has happened here or am I going to have to keep guessing?"

Pixis gave a small smirk as Erwin frowned, obviously not very content with being cut off before responding to him with a, "Well, there was apparently a reappearance of the colossal, however we may have gained a new ally-"

"Yeah, yeah, we suddenly have a titan friend, I already heard about that." Levi said in a deadpan tone. He was getting real fucking sick of people telling him the same shit over and over again. "What I'm more interested in is where this fucker came from and why we've never seen them before."

"That's part of the issue, Levi. We have no clue where it came from." Erwin responded, keeping an air of calm even though Levi could tell that he wasn't exactly in the mood for some sass.

Which was unfortunate because Levi wasn't in the mood to be polite either.

"So you're telling me that a big ass friendly titan appeared out of nowhere and decided to plug up the Wall? Please tell me we at least captured it rather than killing it on the spot."

Erwin coughed into his hand, looking at Pixis to respond.

"Well unfortunately the titan managed to slip our grasp."

Levi just started incredulously at the two. "Its a fucking titan how the fuck do you let it slip your grasp. What, was it covered in lard or something?"

A couple of recruits chuckled behind him but Levi found nothing about the situation funny. A friendly titan had achieved the first victory for humanity against the titans in possibly forever and they just let it go?

Fuck, he didn't even like titans but he could already see this being a logistical nightmare. There was no way that Hanji, and probably Erwin at this point, weren't going to fight tooth and nail to capture this thing now that they knew it existed which only meant one more thing for Levi.

He was going to have to attend more of those fucking funding meetings.

Speaking of Hanji, he could already feel a headache forming from the very imminent rants he was going to have to listen to about how scientifically groundbreaking this thing was but luckily for him Hanji was currently nowhere to be found.

"We didn't really have an opportunity to capture it to be honest." Pixis told him. "It sealed itself outside using the boulder. If we'd tried to capture it any earlier we would have had to leave the wall wide open."

Levi clicked his tongue at that. He couldn't really blame the Garrison for that if that was truly the case but it also opened up another can of worms, namely regarding the things intelligence.

Did it seal itself outside to continue fighting titans or did it leave to avoid capture?

Having heard about the apparent rampage the beast had been on prior to its exit, either option was equally possible but each required a level of premeditation that he didn't want to think a titan was possible of.

"Apparently they didn't let everything slip away with the titan though." Erwin reassured. "A cadet who seemed to know of the titan was singled out and taken into custody so we may be able to learn a bit more about this possible ally."

"Great, so we've captured a kid."

"Levi, you know it is better than nothing."

He only gave a deep sight at that. Yes, it was in fact better than nothing but he was still skeptical of how much information this kid could truly give.

From the way Erwin worded it the kid could either be a wealth of information or a complete dead end that they had grabbed while grasping at straws, and Levi wasn't exactly optimistic about it being the former.

"When are we going to talk to them then?"

"First I have to talk with Zackly and get a court order to-"

"The kid's on trial? For fucks sake are we trying to make it as unlikely as possible that we'll catch this titan?" At this point Levi was done, absolutely done with whatever bureaucratic bullshit was happening.

Yes, he understood how important it was for the morons within Sina to truly decide if this titan was a benefit to humanity (and by extension the kid) but as far as Levi was concerned it'd already proved itself.

Why the hell else would it have fought against its kin and willingly sealed the wall? There was nothing for it to gain by doing so since it left as soon as its task was complete.

Erwin just sighed as Pixis picked the conversation back up. "The longer we wait the farther that titan gets from the walls, so I'd get a move on if I were you." He paused to take a swig from a flask that Levi hadn't even noticed up until this point. "That is, assumin' it wants to stalk off into obscurity again."

"That is a good point, Pixis." Erwin replied in kind, although Levi could tell that the sentiment was more directed towards him. "This titan has shown a willingness to help humans that we've never seen before. Who's to say that it won't come back to the walls."

Levi could have continued to argue the point but from where he stood it looked as if continuing would simply lead to the conversation devolving into petty banter.

And while he was certainly petty he was also tired and not fucking willing to deal with this situation any more than he already had.

"Whatever, I'm going to get the fuck out of here before Hanji catched wind of whats going on here." He replied, pulling on the reins of his horse and turning around, only then remembering that yes, he did in fact have a squad on his tail.

Walls, he really was tired.

"Hey, Erwin, I'm leaving these guys with you." He said, turning ever so slightly back to where Erwin continued to sit.

Erwin just smiled back at him, knowing there was no reason to argue at this point. "That's fine by me. I'll see you later at the Sina courthouse."

And with that, Levi rode off.

Bertholdt and Annie were panicking.

Well simply saying that they were panicking would be an understatement because while Bertholdt felt as if things were falling apart and that they really couldn't have fucked this up more, he at least still had his wits about him.

The same could not be said for Annie.

Apparently he had not been the first person to tell her the news that the friendly titan-for some reason whenever he heard that he had the urge to scream that it wasn't just any titan, it was Eren, he was an ally and they needed to stop fucking talking about him like that-had just up and left after plugging up the wall, and to be honest he was sort of glad.

Bertholdt really had no desire to tell her exactly why he'd let the one person they were supposed to capture at all costs escape, and even less desire to tell her that yes, Eren was in fact missing.

But he'd found her staring down at a pile of corpses dully murmuring 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry' over and over and the state of the corpses were...not good to say the least.

It was certainly one of the worse piles, this one full of empty faces and missing limbs, presumably within the belly of a titan.

It looked like they'd died painfully and slowly.

It looked like they'd died crying.

Ah, and there were those nasty thoughts again, the ones that had been pushing themselves to the surface ever since he'd put a hole in that dreaded wall. The ones that told him it was all his fault, that there was no reason for him to do this except his own fucking fear of the unknown. That he was too weak to do anything but follow orders and would never be anything more than a mindless puppet subject to the whims of people who didn't give a shit about his existence.

But Bertholdt continued to push them down. After all, there was no way they could be true.

Maybe the wall was his fault, but he'd heard what these people had done, heard everything from his teachers and classmates.

He was here for a reason, and maybe not everyone here deserved what was coming to them, but they didn't have the luxury of picking and choosing in such dire times. They were going to have to break a couple eggs.

So he pushed forward, placing a hand on Annie's shoulder and dragging her away from the body. After all, no good was going to come from her just standing there and stewing in her own thoughts.

She walked along with him, although Bertholdt really had no clue whether she actually processed that it was him who was coming to take her away or if she just went along with him because she couldn't continue to stand there herself, but either way was fine.

He grabbed one of the small water satchels that was being handed out throughout town-something about a small leather company who was trying to drum up some more business-and pulled her off into one of the broken down houses towards the edge of Trost.

It was almost as if the area had been suddenly wiped of all humans, with fruit still on the counter and a large bowl placed atop the stove, surely full of whatever these people had been planning to eat for dinner.

If not for the caved in roof on one side of the house along with shards of glass and rubble on the floor Bertholdt would have called it normal, homey almost.

But now was not the time to reminisce upon what he'd lost, there were far more pressing matter at hand.

Bertholdt not so gently guided Annie to a chair and forced her to sit down, pushing the water he had towards her face and allowing her to grab it.

Although it took her a second to realize what he was doing, Annie all but ripped the satchel from his hands, drinking it faster than what could have been comfortable.

Once she finished she lowered the satchel down to the chair she was sitting on, moving the cap around her fingers in a motion Bertholdt had only seen her do a few times before, but that he still felt was relatively impressive.

And there the two sat for longer than what was probably safe, the only sound between the two of them being the soft clinking of the cap as it occasionally hit Annie's fingernails.

It was Annie who spoke up first, just asking a simple "So what do we do now." To which Bertholdt could really do nothing but sigh.

Trost had been a total and utter failure, and while nothing could change that the bigger issue at stake was now that the general public, or at least the military was aware of Eren and his capabilities, even if they didn't know that he could turn back into a human, which all but set a massive fucking target on his back that teh entire military would be vying for, wheter it be to kill him or use him.

Which was a problem for them, the titan shifters who would have really preferred to work in secret.

Even so, Trost did do one good thing, it got Eren outside the walls, arguably the hardest part of their mission had been achieved through his own volition and now it was just up to them to be able to steer him in the right direction, however they could do that.

"I don't know." Bertholdt admitted, under no impressions that any of his small ideas could really be churned out into a full plan. "Shouldn't we grab Reiner before deciding anything?"

Annie gave an ugly snort at that, going back to looking down at her cap. "Why should we? Who fucking knows where he is now, probably off leading more innocent people to their deaths." And from her tone alone Bertholdt could tell that he missed something.

She had gone off to get Reiner around halfway through the odd Eren chase they had been on, as the two attempted to lead Armin away from Eren's titan before they came across too many people but she'd never come back.

He hadn't even seen her again until he found her standing in front of that corpse, so it had certainly been some time.

"Do you think that Reiner's given up the mission?" He asked tentatively, not really wanting to broach the topic himself.

Reiner had always been a sort of pillar to him, an example of how to act, how to be, even in the face of extreme struggle, even when neither of them knew exactly how to act.

But he knew that Annie certainly didn't hold the same opinion, often remarking that he was simply a boring yes-man who spent more time attempting to appease people than actually fixing their problems, but even then those remarks had a certain bit of fondness to them.

"No, I don't think he'll give up his fucking mission." She spat, and oh boy he had definitely hit something there. "He'd rather pretend like this whole thing didn't exist than give up."

Well that was good, if not a small bit concerning.

While not preferable they could deal with a Reiner that was nothing but dead weight.

They could not deal with a traitor.

And so Bertholdt went with what he considered the safest and most preferable option in this scenario and continued to ask Annie for her opinion. "So what do you think we should then?"

"God, I don't fucking know." She responded, finally pushing herself up from her chair and moving to readjust her gear. "The whole military knows that Eren, or his titan at the very least exists now so we can throw all hopes of getting him out without anyone noticing out the window," she ducked her head to look out of one of the side windows, for what reason he wasn't entirely too sure, "and Eren himself has decided to fuck off to who knows where outside the-"

Bertholdt watched as she seemed to freeze in time, words suddenly stopping and seeming to hang in mid-air. It was obvious that she had realized something, but unfortunately Bertholdt couldn't read minds.

"Annie, you doing ok-"

"The wall." She interrupted, bringing a hand to cover her mouth. "Eren's outside the wall."

Bertholdt just stared at her in confusion. Was she just now connecting the puzzle pieces?

"So all we have to do now is lead him to the banks right? Or pull him towards the banks, whichever it ends up being, but basically he's already done the most difficult part of this assignment himself."

"Right."

"So all we have to do now is corner him outside of the walls." Annie looked as if she'd hit a jackpot. "And because he'd already out there you won't have to shift early, meaning that if necessary you could be a deterrent."

Bertholdt's eyes widened as he caught onto her line of thought. He knew that Eren being outside the walls would make quite a few things easier, but he'd never really considered how it could be utilized to their benefit.

But she was right. Arguably the biggest issue with Trost was the fact that within the time they had he was only able to transform once, as if he had been able to fend off the Garrison while grabbing Eren would have been a cakewalk.

"And the military knowing about Eren's titan is really more helpful than harmful when you think about it." Annie reasoned, beginning to somewhat perk up about the situation. "They'll most likely be focused on finding Eren's titan while keeping themselves safe, meaning that it'll also be safer and easier for us to find him using their information."

"And it'll be much easier to steer him towards the banks, especially if we can get Reiner's help this time."

Annie seemed to stiffen up a bit at that and not for the first time Bertholdt wondered what the hell had happened, but he knew that asking Annie at this time would simply be throwing salt on whatever wound existed so he decided to keep his mouth shut.

That didn't mean he wouldn't be paying quite a bit more attention in the future though.

"We should probably tell Reiner soon though, because it does necessitate a bit of a bigger change in plans." Annie said while turning to head out the door.

"Hm?"

"I'm going to need to join the Survey Corps."

Armin couldn't tell how long he had sat in the small cell, but by judging how low the torches were burning he assumed it had to at least have been a couple of hours, maybe five at max.

And yet he still had no clue exactly why he was down here.

Sure the phrase "fraternization with a titan" was pretty self explanatory, however that didn't explain why they had just up and thrown him in a cell.

If they had truly though that Armin was any sort or threat they would have just up and killed him, not left him to rot in this poorly lit area where they had been oh so kind as to bring him a single meal consisting of nothing more than bread and gruel, although he supposed it could have been worse.

No, this made it seem like they wanted something from him, assumed that he had some sort of answers to this whole situation, and if that was the case they would be sorely disappointed.

All he knew was that he proposed the-admittedly insane-plan to Bertholdt above that titan and then the next thing he knew it was moving to carry it out.

Fucking hell, it still sounded insane even when he was only going over it in his head but everything lined up far to perfectly for it to be total coincidence, which left a couple options, none of which Armin was particularly fond of.

First there was option one, which was that it was in fact a total coincidence and the titan-Walls he was really going to have to give it a name at some point-had already been planning to seal up the wall and decided to on its own, something that Armin really really didn't think was the case, but was still something he'd have to consider.

Option two was that the titan could actually understand him and had gone along with his plan to seal up the wall which was unbelievable for a couple of reasons, including but not limited to the fact that it was a fucking titan and the sheer distance between him and the titan. They'd been very thorough about the distance that a titan could hear you from in class-no less than twenty yards, and yes he did pride himself on memorizing the exact distance thank you very much-and he was certainly much higher up than twenty meters.

Although everything else about this creature was an anomaly so he supposed that he couldn't rule that out either.

The third and final option was arguably the least possible but would certainly be the best case scenario, which would be that he was some kind of titan whisperer.

Walls, he could feel Eren rolling in his grave at the thought-but he wasn't going to think about it too much because Eren was only gone because of him, because of his actions-but if he had somehow gained the ability to talk to or even somewhat control titans that would be a game changer.

Forget using titans to seal up the wall, with the ability to control them he could easily take control of whatever he wanted, do whatever he pleased. After all who would fight him, who could fight against a fucking army of wepaonized titans.

Well, maybe he was getting too far ahead of himself there but it was still an entertaining thought within a time that he desperately needed some entertainment.

But as he continued to ponder his captivity and begin to come to terms with the fact that he would be forced to wait here possibly indefinitely he heard the grinding sound of the door that led to the cells being forced open and allowed himself a small bit of hope.

Although it was probably just another military guard here to make sure that he wasn't up to anything suspicious he had heard that occasionally prisoners were allowed visitors. Considering his current status though he was almost certain that wouldn't be the case for him though.

Still he continued to listen in suspense as footsteps continued to move down, down into the deeper parts of the cells, moving closer and closer to him.

Armin pulled himself off of his bed, mindful of the large chains that they had placed around his wrist and cautiously peered out of his cell to the right.

He had been hoping that it would be Mikasa, or Marco, or Walls forbid even Jean but instead he caught himself staring at the intimidating form of the leader of the Survey Corps, Commander Erwin casually striding down the halls of the prison.

Armin froze. What could they be here for?

He knew that the obvious answer was him, after all the Survey Corps were technically a research division and certainly wouldn't pass up an opportunity to get any information they could from him but he was pretty sure that that wouldn't require a visit from Commander Erwin.

There was also someone else, a second pair of footsteps that he could heard behind Erwin although he hadn't been able to spot them within the poor lighting of the hallway so when the two stopped at his cell he was somewhat shocked to see the vaguely familiar face of Captain Levi staring back at him, and now Armin was somewhat scared.

In the eyes of the military he was sure that whatever information they thought he carried was supremely valuable but the issue still remained that he didn't actually have any information to give.

So if they decided that what he said was not enough...well, he'd prefer not to think of that.

He shrunk back to the small bunk he had been given and sat down at the very edge as the two men ahead of him got comfortable, not exactly knowing how to react.

It was a few moments of silence before Erwin cleared his throat and introduced himself, "Greetings, I'm terribly sorry for the unfortunate conditions of our meeting, but you'll have to bear with me for a moment."

"Ah…" Armin said, not entirely sure how to respond. After all he wasn't stupid, he knew that anything that he said here could be used against him at a later date or used to prove his guilt of his "Crime" and was under no illusions that the Survey Corps would not do so.

They were a part of the military too, arguably the most cutthroat division at that and nowhere near the perfect heroes that Eren hailed them as. If he wanted to get out of here he'd have to play his cards right.

"Although I'm sure you know by now I'm Erwin Smith, current Commander of the Scouting legion and next to me is Captain Levi." At this Levi crossed his arms as he leaned back against the wall, obviously not impressed with the current situation, and honestly Armin couldn't blame him.

"Ah, I'm um, Armin Artlet of the 104th Southern Trainee division." Amrin responded in kind, although he was sure that the two had already known.

Still he didn't want to come off as rude or make a bad impression, after all his life may or may not be within these men's hands.

Erwin simply nodded and gave a kind smile. "Yes, and as I've heard you were quite the academic prodigy among your division."

"Well, I wouldn't call myself a prodigy…"

"Nonsense. I personally know that Shadis is not one to give out praise unnecessarily so you must have made a big impression for him to personally vouch for your intelligence." Erwin continued, and despite his friendly tone Armin became more and more on edge.

It was apparent that Erwin was attempting to put him at ease, place him in a more friendly environment so that he'd be more willing to talk when necessary, but that brought Armin back to the issue of him not actually having any information to give.

So he continued to stay silent, not wanting to give into any trap verbal trap that may be starting to get set up for him and began to plan out his responses carefully.

If he wanted to stay as safe as possible he'd have to give up any real information that he had, but his own personal theories were a different story. There was no reason he would have to-

"Hey Shitwin can you just tell the kid why we're here already? He looks like he's about to crap his pants." Came Levi's calm voice from in front of him, and holy shit he'd forgotten Captain Levi was there and he was also pretty sure that insubidornation of that level had to have been punishable by law.

Erwin gave a soft chuckle at this statement-it must have been a common occurrence then-before apologizing and asking, "Have you been told why you are being held here yet?"

"On the way down I was told it was for fraternization with a titan," Armin raised his hand to the back of his neck in an awkward gesture, "but I'm still not entirely sure what that means." he replied sheepishly.

Truth be told, he had a pretty good idea of exactly what that meant but he wasn't about to incriminate himself by admitting to the events.

Plus making himself look as much like the victim as possible in the scenario couldn't hurt.

Erwin simply gave another reassuring smile before responding with, "According to numerous eye-witnesses you were seen flying along with or ahead of the Rogue titan at Trost and publicly defended it as it approached the wall, going as far as to stand in front of a few of the Garrisons cannons."

"Ah, the Rogue titan?" Armin questioned, although he was pretty sure he knew exactly who they were talking about.

"To simplify things the people have decided that our only known friendly titan needs a name."

"I see."

"That aside, I'm sure that you've realized that that is not the only we've come to see you right." Erwin responded and Armin could feel the mood drop around him.

"No, sir. I didn't think so."

"Good to know." Erwin leaned back in his chair as he pulled a small scroll off of his hip. "To be truthful you're not being held here due to something as silly as 'fraternization with a titan', but rather because you're an important witness."

Now that got Armin's attention.

"Forgive me if I'm putting words in your mouth, but hearing of how you defended the Rouge titan I'm going to assume we both hold the opinion that something as powerful as a titan on our side would be a true waste." Erwin drawled as he handed Armin one of the papers he had within the scroll. "However it seems the opinion is not shared by the entirety of the government."

Quickly scanning over the paper there were a few things that stood out to Armin, one of which being the badly drawn rendition of the Rogue titan in the center of the paper. The beast had been drawn as if it were any other titan, looking like any other of those dumb lumbering beast but with the distinct traits the Rouge titan carried.

He supposed that he couldn't really blame the artist, as he probably would have done the same thing if he hadn't been on the frontline, viewing the titan from up close, but seeing what had been such a clearly different creature displayed as the same as the others felt...wrong.

It left a bad taste in Armin's mouth for a reason that he couldn't explain and frankly didn't want to dwell on, but it wasn't like he could change anything.

The article itself simply explained the trial given with the Survey Corps being pitted against the Military Police and judging by some of the language used it was clear who the journalist agreed with.

What Armin did find interesting though were the terms of the trial. Although Erwin had claimed that he was really only imprisoned due to being a key witness, it looked like a good chunk of the trial was dedicated to his fate as well.

If it was ruled that the titan was an ally of humanity he'd be forced to join the Survey Corps in order to aid it's capture-how the fuck were they going to capture a titan like this anyway?-and if it was ruled otherwise his imprisonment was to be extended until destruction of the titan was possible or if the overall trial decision was changed.

Whatever that meant.

Of course Armin certainly had a preference on the outcome of the trial however there was still one thing he really didn't understand.

"Um, sir." He asked, waiting for an acknowledgement. Once Erwin met his eyes he continued with a, "Why am I to be held if the outcome is not in your favor?"

"Due to the circumstances, namely that you seemed to be cognisant of where the titan would be along with being heavily protective of it many people have come to suspect that you and the Rogue titan have a sort of bond." Erwin stared him back down, his expression turning cold. "I'd suspect it would be for research and information purposes."

"But that's not true! I just-it had already killed a lot of titans so…"

"So you claim that you have had no previous relation to this titan?"

"Sir, with all due respect when would I have had any sort of access to a titan, much less a benevolent one."

Erwin shifted for a moment, moving to pull out another scroll of papers, however this time he didn't bother to sort through them. "According to your military file you were present in Shingansia during the time of The Fall along with two other cadets. Is it not impossible that you made first contact during this time?"

"I didn't meet any titans during the fall, I did nothing but run." Armin seethed. Deep down a part of himself was screaming that this was a trap, that they were simply trying to rile him up to get more information, but fuck it. It wasn't like he had any more information to give anyway.

"So if we take those other two cadets in for questioning, Mikasa Ackerman-" Armin saw Levi stiffen a bit at that and filed it away for later. "-and Eren Jaeger, they will tell the same story."

"You can try." Came Armin's snarky reply and he realized a moment too late that that was not an appropriate response to tell a Commander, holy shit he was so dead.

Erwin raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And pray tell why that is."

"Eren got eaten."

And just like that all of the tension in the room seemed to flow away, replaced with nothing but an understanding dread, something that Armin was not particularly fond of.

He had staved off the horrible pit in his stomach that had been there since Eren had died by taking a page from his own book. By steeping himself in nothing but anger and confusion-although he controlled that first emotion much better than his late friend-and forgetting about what had happened.

But that admission had brought all of those memories back, that awful punch to the gut because fuck, Eren got eaten right in front of him. Eren who had been with him since he was a kid, righteous in his own way and far too focused in his own form of justice even if it was wrong half the time.

Eren who had pulled him out of his pit after his grandfather had been taken, Eren who had always had dreams and inspirations and wasn't shy about telling them to other people. Eren who refused to compromise and was awfully endearing in his own way.

Eren who had gotten fucking eaten.

Tears began to prick at Armin's eyes again as he remembered and all he could think was 'wow, this really is a bad time.' but luckily for him it seemed the two men in front of him understood.

They had to, to be honest. One doesn't survive in the Survey Corps without seeing a couple people lose those close to them.

"I apologize." Erwin said softly as he moved to crouch down in front of the cell. "The final person count hasn't come in yet. We didn't know."

Armin wanted to say something, really just anything to prove that he wasn't a weak fucking child who couldn't even hold a normal conversation about those who had passed without breaking down into tears.

He knew that shit like this happened, that nobody stayed at your side forever but…he just hadn't really expected it to be so soon.

So instead of speaking he just lowered his head and kept his mouth shut, trying to will back the tears that were continuing to pool, threatening to slide down at any moment.

Erwin's voice still cut through the cell with a cordial, "We'll be sending down another one of our members to greet and brief you on the trial tomorrow around ten. I hope to see you then."

Armin could hear the shuffling of chairs as he got up and nodded his head in understanding, still not taking his eyes off of the floor until he began to hear trailing footsteps leading away from his cell.

He pulled his head back up and wiped at his eyes only to find them damp again moments later so he gave up, burying his face in the hard pillow that had been supplied for him, reminiscent of the ones each cadet had been given at camp.

And so he pretended it was.

Pretended that none of the day had happened, that he wasn't in a tiny cell but rather in an overcrowded, far too loud barracks with nothing but mindless chatter filling the space around him.

That if he opened his eyes he'd see Eren on the bunk across from him, doing something stupid but oh so typical and challenging Jean to a fight over it.

But the silence within the cell was deafening, there was nobody chattering around and nobody to see if he opened his eyes now, and so Armin didn't.

And while thinking of what could've been, what should've been he fell asleep.


	12. Time For a Trial!

Armin woke up to a loud clanging on the bars of his cell, jolting so hard that he could feel the loose chains around his wrist pull and chafe.

Fucking hell he'd forgotten about those.

He looked down at his wrists, eyes still bleary with sleep and unable to truly focus but open enough to see the discoloration of his skin even in this low light and cursed once more. That was really gonna fucking hurt later.

Although he really should have expected it when he moved to get out of bed the face staring at him through his bars startled him to the point where he fell flat back out onto his bed unable to do much but stare at the...woman? Man? Whoever was continuing to stare at him like he was little more than a piece of meat waiting to be slaughtered.

Holy shit, he hoped this wasn't the legal advocate that Erwin had been talking about yesterday.

He sat in a tense silence as he continued to stare at the person, waiting for them to make a move but after a solid minute of silence Armin became impatient.

"Um, good morning…?" He asked tentatively, still not knowing exactly what this person was here for. For all he knew, the courts had decided to make an immediate decision without him and this person was here to execute him, or worse, lead him to become a dog for the Military Police.

Armin had heard of it happening before, where a criminal who was supposed to testify would be referred to as far too dangerous for an appearance in court and would then have their case proceed without them, often spending days in their cell without any news of the ongoing trial.

Sometimes they'd even be publicly executed without even knowing what they were charged with.

It was an unfortunate reality of their legal system, a system which commanded power and avoided criticism by forcing anyone who disagreed into the same fate as true criminals, and while Armin was certainly aware and disgusted by it, it was simply one of the things you had to forget about in daily life less you spend hours fretting over something you can't fix.

Besides, there's not much room for political advocacy when your main focus is not being eaten by a titan.

So to say that he was relieved when the person's face quirked up into a smile and they stepped back into the light to reveal those two wings of freedom would be a bit of an understatement.

"Nice to meet you!" They greeted with enthusiasm, clasping their hands in front of their face as they leaned to the side, their glasses beginning to slide off of their face. "I'm Research Section leader Hanji Zoe, but you can just call me Hanji."

Armin swallowed audibly. Was this some kind of trick? Section leader wasn't exactly a low position, especially within the Survey Corps-Mostly because the Survey Corps at its core was a research branch, although it seemed that most people forgot about that-so to ask to be referred to so casually was almost unheard of.

"Um, yes sir." Armin responded, attempting to go for the safe option, but he didn't miss the small frown that pulled across the person's face at his comment. "May I, um, ask why you are here?"

They smiled once again, finally pushing their glasses back to their original position and enthusiastically replied, "Well, to be honest I'm supposed to be your legal advisor-" Armin frowned a bit at that. He had begun to feel relieved too early. "-but I'm actually here a bit early to ask some of my own questions!"

"Huh? About what?"

They practically jumped at that, placing their hands on the bars of Armin's cell once more. "Why titans of course! According to everything that I've heard you may be something like the titan messiah, but I haven't been able to look over the reports yet because Levi is being mean." They finished with a frown, and Armin had to wonder, was it really a good idea to bar the person who was supposed to be giving him legal advice from the details of his case?

"And so I decided to come directly to the source before we maybe, possibly, probably won't, lose you to the Military Police." They continued to smile, but with every word they said Armin was losing confidence. Why the hell did Commander Erwin choose them to be his legal advisor?

"So what'do you say? Will you tell me everything you know?" Hanji asked, pulling a large and well worn flipbook and pen from somewhere behind them. "Please?"

"Ah…I mean, I don't see why not-"

"Excellent! So to start off, about the Rogue titan-"

It didn't take long into the conversation before Armin realized something, something he didn't really expect or notice at the start but now that he'd noticed it, he was mentally kicking himself.

It was that Hanji was _smart_, and not in the 'oh I didn't expect this person to actually know what they were doing' kind of way, but rather the 'holy shit I could research for years and still not come to the expertise they have' kind of way.

Hanji had taken the smallest of information he had given them and was able to extrapolate into what was almost a new dimension.

And _that _was probably why Commander Erwin had appointed them as his legal representative because as they spoke Armin continued to realize more and more about the situation that he could use to his favor.

Or really, the Rogue titan's favor, but considering that his freedom was on the line it was one in the same.

"So the artist rendition that is being passed around is incorrect?" Hanji asked, continuing to scrawl in her flipbook. "But it has all of the correct features?"

"Yes, I mean it's technically not wrong with the prominent stuff like it's weird jaw and ears but the rendition just looks...off." Armin offered, not really sure what else to say.

"Hmmmm." Hanji hummed as they went and rummaged through their back pockets again, pulling out a small crumpled piece of paper. "If I give you a pen could you try and correct the drawing that I have?"

"Ah, well I'm not really too confident in my drawing abilities…" But Armin took the pen and paper anyway, moving towards the right corner of his cell which had the best lighting, but without even seeing the paper properly he could already see some of the big issues with the recreation.

For starters, compared to yesterday's paper this one had a full body recreation and it was just...wrong.

The Rogue titan had been drawn slightly pudgy with long arms that led to hands dangling past the knees and a slightly hunched over posture. Once more it looked as if the artist had attempted to fix the titans very much not normal features onto a normal titan body and it was just…

Ugh, it made Armin irrationally angry.

Maybe there was some truth to the claim that he was far too attached to a titan that he had only really interacted with once.

Picking his pen up, Armin began to correct the piece, using sharp angled lines in an attempt to get his point across and all too aware of Hanji staring intently through the bars ahead of him, but no matter what he did the piece didn't look right.

It wasn't as if Armin was some kind of artistic genius, but he at least thought that he could make some basic corrections to get the titan's general shape, but it was just far too different.

He threw the pen down in frustration, the clattering against the tile floor sounding far too satisfying for him to truly regret it as he roughly shoved the product of his work through the bars of his cell and into Hanji's hands.

"Hmmm, is something wrong?" They hummed as they delicately unfolded the crumpled corners of the paper to reveal the drawing within, which at this point was basically nothing but a large ink blotch of several lines all attempting to change how the titan looked.

Armin ran his hands through his hair-holy fuck he needed a showing and probably a brush-and let out a deep breath. "It's just-the Rogue titan was so different. It wasn't like any of the other titans around and it wasn't just it's mouth and ears that made it stand out. I don't really know how to explain it."

"Well why don't you try?" Hanji said as they flipped the paper around to face him. "It looks like you've got some problems with his body, so why don't you start with that?"

Armin closed his eyes, bringing a hand up to his chin to think back to Trost, to exactly what he'd seen, what he was sure so many others had seen. "Well...to start its body looked nothing like a normal titan. It was perfectly proportional, almost as if you'd taken a human and stretched it out to the size of a titan." he placed his arms out in front of him for emphasis. "And it was all muscle! Walls, it looked as if it didn't have a single ounce of body fat, as if it spent every single day of its life bench pressing trees."

He heard a small laugh in front of him and saw Hanji move to cross their legs, placing their elbows on their knees and leaning into their hands. "Him being able to carry the boulder makes a lot more sense then."

"Yeah, I don't understand why this is the official rendition of the Rogue titan. I mean, so many people saw it and it looks almost nothing like this."

"Who knows. I'm personally not privy to how they commissioned the artist, so it could be for a number of reasons." Hanji responded, attempting to wave away the conversation with her hand. "So are there any other differences you noticed? Not just physical ones too, I'd like to know if he acted any different than other titans."

Armin just gave them a flat look. "With all due respect, it was attacking other titans and ignoring humans. I don't think titan behaviour gets any different than that."

"Oh, no I don't mean stuff like that!" They exclaimed, suddenly seeming much more engaged in the conversation. "I mean do you know if he moved to where more people were? Did he attempt to herd titans into an area? By the walls, was he eating the other titans?!" By the end of their statement Armin had begun to back away as they scooted closer and closer to the cell, once more placing their hands on the bars.

"Um, well I'm not sure? It came by the supply depot which had a lot of people, but that could be coincidence and I saw it bite out another titan's nape but I'm not really sure if it was eating it?"

"So he _does _know about a titan's weak spot!" Hanji shouted as they popped up from their sitting position practically vibrating in place as Armin just looked on helplessly. "Did he have claws? What were his eyes like, did they have the normal round pupils or were they different? You said that his eyes were totally front facing, right? Did you ever see them focus?"

"Uhm, yes? It actually kinda looked back at me as it was leaving the wall-"

"He focused on you? Do you know why?"

That made Armin stop and think for a second. It'd been a small question on his mind, a piece of information that had been digging at him because of its oddness but something he'd never really stopped to think about.

Originally he'd assumed that it was because he'd been following the titan and helping to protect it but that had quite a few holes in it.

For one, Armin himself hadn't actually killed any titans around the Rogue, he'd simply been sending off orders for others to do so and telling everyone not to attack the titan and gave off a small speech at the end, so there was really no reason for it to have specifically looked back at him.

And he _knew _that the titan had looked back at him, had locked gazes with him and nobody else. He knew that it meant for him to see that.

He just didn't know why.

"Not really." Armin admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'd only spent a little bit of time following it and telling people that this one was friendly and was trying to help us out."

"So you flew around with him, and supported him, right?"

"Well, yeah. If you were expecting that I was controlling it or something I'm sorry to say that that wasn't the case."

"Kind of like a pack." Hanji noted as they began to scribble in their book again.

"What?"

"Look, Armin, when you put all of these traits together what does it remind you of, what type of animal?" They flipped their book around so that Armin could see the, surprisingly neat, scrawl that she had up and down the page listing traits such as front facing eyes, ability to focus on moving objects, and lighter body structure.

Some of the traits certainly rang a bell in the back of his head for specific animals he'd seen and heard about, but by and large he had absolutely no idea what Hanji was trying to get at here and had no problems telling them as such.

"A predator. These are all the perfect traits for a predator, namely one that goes after titans."

Ah.

And just like that Armin's whole view of the titan flipped around.

He'd seen the Rogue titan ripping apart its lesser kin with a type of ease that he previously could have only imagined, but he'd never stopped to think about why that was. How optimized the whole titan seemed for the task.

As if it was created to do nothing but destroy other titans.

"You really think that's what it is? That titans have predators in general?" Armin asked. He'd never heard of the possibility, really hadn't even thought about it.

Titans were just far too ever-present, too numerous and powerful, but when faced with the evidence he'd seen with his own two eyes, it was kind of hard to deny.

"What else could it be?" They reasoned, eyeing their notes once more. "I mean it could be something like-oh"

Hanji looked off to her side and suddenly Armin was aware of another pair of footsteps rounding his cell, much closer than he thought they could have gotten without Armin being able to hear them.

"Hanji, the trial starts in fifteen minutes." Said the man as he rounded the corner, and holy shit was he tall.

All of a sudden, staring up at this new person Armin was reminded of exactly where he was, what he was here for, and what was to come. He'd somewhat forgotten during his talk with Hanji, forgotten that he was here to help determine the fate of an entity he'd seen exactly once and was now inextricably linked to.

"Oh, Armin this is Mike! We'll be taking you to your trial together." Haniji reassured him, as if that would make any sort of a difference for the events that were about to come.

So he simply nodded dumbly, moving back to sit on the bed, mindful of the chains that all of a sudden seemed far too present on his wrists.

The door unlocked with a soft clink, making the heavy slide of bars sound that much louder as they grated against the floor to allow for Mike to enter, gently freeing the chains from around his wrist and ushering him out of his cell.

The newfound freedom was short lived though, as the second he was ahead of Mike he was motioned to put his arms behind his back and a familiar weight was back on his wrists again.

At least this time they were far lighter.

Although Armin had been trying his best to remain neutral about the whole debacle-mostly because he'd rather not give any of his possible opponents anything else they could use against him-he must have made a face because once more Hanji was ahead of him, walking backwards and reassuring him that everything was going to be fine.

Despite it doing absolutely nothing to calm his nerves, Armin appreciated the thought.

The courtroom was huge. Much larger than Armin had ever remembered it being, and with far more people than he'd originally expected to be there.

Small whispers seemed to take up the whole area, just loud enough that Armin could hear them but were impossible to make out from where he was. He knew a good chunk of them were about him though, after all it wasn't as if pointing directly at him and then turning to whoever was next to you was particularly discreet, but he supposed it could have been worse.

Reflexively, he shrunk back, no longer wanting to leave the small bit of comfort he'd built up within the past hour or so, but it seemed like the Military Police guards ahead of him were having none of that.

They yanked him forward by the collar of his shirt and Armin stumbled for a moment before regaining his footing and taking long strides in an attempt to keep up.

He was led to a small chair that sat in the middle of the room and quickly shoved into it, his arms being wrenched back as they were tied to the chair with another chain.

Or at least, that's what Armin had to assume had happened as it wasn't like he could turn around to see exactly what had happened.

He jostled the chains around a couple of times to confirm his hypothesis and although he was almost certain that he was right, something else struck him. He wasn't exactly confined or locked in place where he was.

Sure, his hands were tied behind his back and to the chair but his feet were still on the ground and he could lift the chair off of the floor simply by attempting to stand up. If he really wanted to, he could attempt to make a run for it-though he obviously wouldn't.

But the simplicity of the restraints along with the lack of any notable guards led him to one conclusion.

There was no way they legitimately thought of him as a threat, not at all.

If they'd even had the slightest inkling that he had more power than he was letting on they'd have at the very least chained his legs or feet to the chair.

Armin continued to wiggle around, testing exactly how much movement he had within his current position but also simply fidgeting from the stress of the whole situation as the whispers continued to swell.

The courtroom began to grow louder and louder as people continued to debate, to point and stare at him.

It was infuriating to say the least.

As the volume came to ahead a resounding smack rang out across the room, almost everybody immediately becoming silent as their heads turned to look upwards at the judge, a man that Armin had only ever really heard about once.

General Darius Zackley, an apparently fair but judgemental man.

Now that the background noise was gone the silence within the courtroom was deafening and Armin took a moment to fully take in his surroundings.

Erwin and Levi stood out the most, both standing behind the wooden banister that was present all around the courtroom and Armin wasn't sure whether to be reassured or fearful that the two hadn't looked at or even acknowledged him at any point since he had entered.

Turning to his right he was met by the face of Commander Nile, who actually was staring straight at him, which was quickly making itself the most terrifying part of this whole experience.

Not one for confrontation, Armin quickly looked away managing to lock eyes with, thank the walls, Mikasa and Bertholdt who were both standing next to each other, Mikasa looking extraordinarily pissed and Bertholdt looking anxious as usual.

He guessed that they were there to be witnesses although it wasn't like he had any proof.

While he supposed that he should have been happy, relieved even that at least two of the people within this courtroom were his friends and would certainly be on his side regardless of what happened for some reason he wasn't.

Rather than being relieved he felt bitter. Bitter over the whole trial, bitter over the fact that even after what they'd faced, what they'd lost, they couldn't even recover in peace. Bitter that after giving everything they had for humanity and losing a friend in the process they had to sit in the damned courtroom and watch as powers out of control attempted to snatch up another one.

The thought made his blood boil.

How dare they strip them of all individuality and humanity assuming that they could simply put all they had experienced behind them and move on without a second thought, as if they were nothing but chess pieces on a board for them to control.

The more he thought about it the more Armin wanted to scream, wanted to rip himself up from this sad excuse of a binding and tell everybody listening exactly what he thought of their bullshit way of treating the situation.

Heh, Eren would have been proud of him.

Eren was exhausted.

He could feel it pulling at every muscle in his body, his legs threatening to give out beneath him at any moment as he ran, yet he had no intentions of stopping.

Stopping now would mean that the titan who were still hot on his heels would have nothing but a free snack lying on the ground because he was certain that he wouldn't be able to get up.

But to be honest, he didn't even know where he was really running to, after all it wasn't like there was any sort of civilization outside of the walls-or maybe there was, surviving members from the fall of Wall Maria just waiting for someone like him to come along and help them out.

...yeah, as if.

His best bet right now was to find that dense forest he and his father had occasionally traveled to when he was taken along for patient visits outside of their home within Shiganshina. The one that his father always warned him not to play around in because apparently it was crawling with wolves.

(Though he'd certainly done his own fair share of goofing off while his father was hunting anyway)

Regardless, at the present moment something as small as wolves was the least of his problems so he continued to run in the general direction that he thought the forest might be.

Did he mention that he had no clue exactly where this forest was-or where he was for that matter-because that was also a pretty big issue.

And so, without any other real option he continued to run forwards and to his right, praying to whatever was listening that he would find the forest soon, or really any type of cover as while he was certainly much faster than the titans that were chasing him, he was also exhausted and there was no fucking way he was making it until nightfall to fully get away from them.

Actually he wasn't even sure if that was really an option at this point.

He was still unsure of exactly what the side effects of being a titan shifter were, besides the very useful healing and the not so useful temperature difference so it was totally possible that just like any other titan he'd end up conking out without any sunlight, regardless of if he was tired or not.

Come to think of it he usually was one of the first ones to fall asleep in the barracks and he'd been told that nothing short of an acoustic round would wake him up until morning, but at the same time it wasn't as if he was the only one.

With everybody's grueling schedules and training it wasn't uncommon for just about everyone to be asleep within ten minutes of lights out, so he wouldn't exactly call himself abnormal in that regard.

Still the thought tugged at his mind as he eyed the sun which was slowly dipping closer and closer to the horizon.

And so he continued to run, feet striking the ground with a force he was sure could be felt by the wildlife around him for miles as he moved ahead, the action feeling both shockingly natural and horrifically wrong as he moved forward.

From his height titans were relatively easy to spot meaning it was just a matter of turning every so slightly and staying out of their general vicinity as he passed them, something not so difficult but annoying all the same as more than once he'd been forced out of line by a particularly excited titan.

With how bad everything could have been though Eren supposed that the fact that he was far faster than all of the titans around him was his saving grace, but he also couldn't help but think that he was simply outrunning his demise.

At the end of the day he wasn't even sure if he'd be able to find shelter, the forest or something else so for all he knew this sprint was nothing but a pointless endeavor.

And not for the first time, Eren wondered if he should simply let himself be caught by the titans.

Throughout the introductions the trial seemed to move by slowly, as if time had become nothing but a rich honey slowly oozing down from it's container.

It left Bertholdt nervous, moreso than usual, as it began to feel like everyone within the courtroom was simply here to prolong the inevitable, to avoid talking about the possibly world changing ramifications that would come from the simple decision made today.

Or really just world changing for them, as regardless of what the military decided to do with Eren's titan Bertholdt, Annie, and Reiner's plan would stay relatively the same. The Survey Corps would still ride out, they would still attempt to interact with Eren so it was hypothetically a win-win situation for him either way.

Yet there was something about watching Armin, looking small and ragged, being shoved into that small chair, arms pinned ineffectually behind his back, that was just…

It wasn't right.

Bertholdt knew he shouldn't care, that he should just let the case proceed, tell his course of events as needed and be happy with the outcome regardless of what happened but for some reason he just couldn't let it go.

He wanted the Survey Corps to win, to be allowed to capture the Rogue titan, and while he attempted to rationalize his wants with the fact that attempting to capture Eren would hypothetically leave more time for Annie and him to find Eren in case they weren't the first and bit smaller of a possibility of others finding out that yes, there was in fact a human within that titan, they were flimsy excuses at best.

Equally good arguments could be made for allowing the Military police to win, like how they wouldn't have to deal with anyone chasing them once the titans disappeared or how, most importantly, it would take Armin totally out of the equation.

Because at the end of the day, Bertholdt wasn't stupid. Compassionate to a fault, yes, but he knew that Armin was the one who was most likely to figure out who they were and what they were after and yet…

And yet he couldn't quite push the image of Armin and Eren huddled up together on the first night of training telling anyone who would listen about their goal to see the ocean, couldn't push away the memory of Armin staying behind during a running exercise simply because he though Bertholdt looked lonely.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, he'd gotten far too attached and god did he know it. Somewhere along the line he had stopped thinking of these people as disposable casualties that would unfortunately be lost but that couldn't be helped and started thinking of them as individuals.

Individuals who had lives and existences beyond his immediate interactions with him.

Trost still weighed heavily on his shoulders, both due to his complete and utter failure to complete his mission and the lives that had been lost and nothing was really going to change that.

So he supposed it wouldn't hurt to help one of them out for once.

Originally Bertholdt had expected for him and Mikasa to be called up to testify after the stakes of the trial had been laid out and had been mentally preparing exactly what he was going to say-after all he didn't want to incriminate himself by giving away information that he really shouldn't have known-but the trial seemed to somewhat fall sideways after introductions.

The judge had gone straight to questioning Armin starting out with a "Why did you defend the Rogue titan?"

Armin seemed to jolt up a bit at that, probably not expecting to be immediately question either and responded, "Ah...well, it seemed like it was trying to help us out so-"

"And what if it hadn't been? How could you have been so sure it wasn't simply waiting for the best possible moment to kill as many people as possible." Came Nile's voice from Bertholdt's side, and shit was this how the trials normally went?

"Sir, the Rogue titan had previously been attacking and killing other titans before it picked up the boulder. It had avoided killing humans so I had no reason to assume it would begin to do so."

With this a small wave of murmurs began to sweep across the courtroom again, mostly those voicing their disbelief at Armin's reasoning to which Bertholdt supposed he couldn't blame them too much.

If he didn't know exactly what that titan was and hadn't seen it himself he probably wouldn't have believed him either.

"It was a titan, that should have been reason enough to be suspicious." Came Nile's retort once more and Armin made a bit of a face at that but didn't respond. The whispers began to swell but the judge took them down with a single slap of his hand.

"Settle down now." He said, rearranging his papers and adjusting his glasses. "That question was simply one to sate my own curiosity."

The room seemed to settle down much more after that but Bertholdt could feel the tension in the air continue to thicken.

"Now for the trial to decide the fate of the Rogue titan along with Armin Artlet's placement, could the defense state their case?"

"Yes sir." Said Commander Erwin as he stepped forward to make himself more visible. "We believe that the Rogue titan could be a definite benefit for humanity, as it has already proven its usefulness in combat and would allow us to begin to take back land that has been lost to the titans."

Well, obviously.

Bertholdt didn't know exactly why, but for some reason he'd expected more from Erwin, expected for the man to start off strong and hard, not giving the enemy even a second to breathe. The stories he'd heard about him were downright terrifying,

Once more the murmurs began to rise throughout the courtroom, an action that Bertholdt was slowly becoming more and more used to, but rather than silence them like before the judge simply continued asking, "And the prosecutors."

Nile stepped up, along with a person Bertholdt could really only describe as his lackey, as they really didn't seem to be anyone important and produced a few papers from a scroll at his side.

"We of the Military Police, along with support from the Church of the Walls believe that the Rogue titan is a threat to humanity and therefore must be eliminated rather than captured." He paused for a second, glancing towards Armin. "Although we propose that the Survey Corps shall be the ones to dispatch this titan we believe that 104th Cadet Armin Artlet should come under our custody in order to obtain as much information as possible and stand in case of an attack from the same, or a similar titan."

"I see."

At this Bertholdt saw Mikasa tense next to him, and he couldn't blame her. It was obvious that the term 'obtain as much information as possible' was simply the nice way of saying 'torture him until we get the words we want' which, yeah, Bertholdt was not too comfortable with himself.

But it wasn't as if he could do anything to help at the moment, hell even if he gave the most skewed description of what happened in Armin's favor there was still the issue of the fact that Armin knew absolutely nothing, or at the very least nothing that mattered.

Which made this whole trial a total farce, simply a bargain in which Armin was betting his freedom on the hope that this judge would see the use in a titan, which they had very little information about.

So the chances weren't great..

All he could really hope for at this time was that either the Survey Corps had a good plan under their belt or that Armin did himself.

Despite knowing for a fact that he was still sitting in the same chair, wrists solidly pinned to its backing, Armin still felt like he was careening towards the floor. As if at any moment he'd blink and then suddenly be making impact with the hard stones in front of him, his teeth rattling as he hit the ground head first.

'Kind of like Eren with his training gear' he thought as a few memories came flooding back, getting him to chuckle internally despite the situation.

After all, it was really all he could do at the moment.

He hadn't even realized that someone had asked him a question until he heard his name echoing throughout the courthouse.

He looked up, with what he was sure was not the most flattering expression on his face, and said, "Huh?"

To his right he heard someone scoff-regardless of who it was he chose to believe it was Commander Nile because yeah-and frowned. Had he really not been paying attention for that long?

"You have been asked to confirm that you did in fact have previous contact with titans, mindless or otherwise, before Trost."

"Oh, um, no sir. I did not." responded Armin cautiously, although he was pretty sure that he knew where this line of questioning was going.

"Can you confirm that you were a resident of Shiganshina at the time of the fall of Wall Maria?"

"Yes, however I was able to make it to the boats before I even spotted a titan." he said, already predicting that they were going to attempt to claim that this was proof of him somehow being in cahoots with the Rogue titan. "The first time I saw a titan was earlier yesterday when I was brought up for Wall duty, you could ask Mikasa for conformation."

"Mikasa being one of the other Cadets who was present in Shiganshina at the time and is currently present in the courtroom?"

"Yes sir."

"Mikasa Ackerman of the 104th cadets, could you please shed some light on the situation?"

Armin watched as Mikasa stepped forward, moving to make her normal salute as she stared off into the distance. Walls, he hoped she was okay.

Even though he'd spoken with her briefly before the supply depot plan and she'd seemed fine-err, well fine in a relative sense, but at the very least she still seemed like she would be fine as long as she had plenty of support and time, something that was currently being robbed from her and it showed.

Mikasa looked lifeless, like she had no motivation to do anything, simply going through the motions because someone else told her to do so, and honestly Armin couldn't blame her. If his life and freedom weren't currently on the line he was sure that he would be in a similar state.

"Armin and I were present when the Colossal titan made an appearance. I ran towards my home which was farther from the boats whereas Armin ran towards his. When I met back up with him on the boats he confirmed that he had not seen any titans other than the colossal."

"So there's no true proof that he would not have had any chance to contact this titan then?" Questioned Nile, sounding much too smug for Armin's liking, although he had to admit that Nile was right.

"A lack of proof doesn't mean that I for sure interacted with the Rogue titan, or any other titan before Trost, for that matter." Armin clipped back.

"Yet it does not rule out the possibility of it happening either."

Fucking hell, nothing had even happened and Armin was already sick of this trial. Wasn't this supposed to be about the Rogue titan, whether it could be used as an ally to humanity, to help us reclaim the territory that we'd lost?

Why were they here debating whether or not he could have maybe, possibly, have some sort of relation to this titan when they could be actually focusing on the true issue at hand?

And then it hit him.

They thought that he could control the titan, didn't they? They thought that the Rogue titan's actions were either all due to him or heavily influenced by him at the very least.

That was why he was even a piece of this argument and why the Military Police had a vested interest in keeping him within the walls, either to experiment on him or to simply kill him without any further issue.

While at first this didn't make much sense, as it'd make it much easier on the Military Police to simply say the he was the one in control and then execute him under the pretense that he wasn't even human but as Armin looked around the courtroom, specifically the civilians in the room, he realized that wasn't true.

If they assumed that he could control the Rogue titan, what was stopping them from assuming that he could control all titans?

And that would do one of two things. It would either cause a panic among civilians and the upper class alike, or it would create unbridled support, both of which wouldn't be good for the Military Police's case.

Which was why Commander Nile was attempting to shift the focus away from the real problem and simply make it seem like he had some extra information on this new titan. He knew that if all of the information was out Armin would hold all of the cards, and in some way he already did.

Now, obviously Armin didn't have any abilities-or at least he was pretty sure that he didn't-but here perception was everything. He didn't actually need to prove anything, he just had to leave a bit of reasonable suspicion and let the rest play out.

So as Commander Nile continued to question him, Armin responded in kind, simply continuing to deny what was false and confirm what was true as Nile continued to get more and more frustrated.

Partially because it was impossible to truly prove anything that had happened in the past and Mikasa rarely ever left his side so it was easy to provide an alibi for most situations.

Yet despite all of the questioning and opposition from Commander Nile, Armin's focus kept shifting over to Commander Erwin as he really hadn't said anything since the trial introduction and Armin had no idea why.

At this point he wasn't even paying much attention to the questions he was being asked until Nile was cut off by Judge Zackly who said, "Alright, Alright, I think we've gone through enough questioning about what happened in the past, however at some point we must face the problems in the present. Cadet Armin, please explain your experience with the Rogue titan at Trost."

Ah, well that was one way to bring him back to the conversation.

"Yes sir. Around forty minutes after the Wall was broken I began to hear rumors of a titan that was attacking other titans but I chalked it up to wishful thinking."

"So at this point you had not actually seen the titan?"

"No sir, and I only got true confirmation that it existed once some of my fellow comrades were able to enter the supply depot due to its support."

"Are any of those comrades here today?"

"Ah, yes sir." Armin responded. "Mikasa Ackerman and Bertholdt Fubar were two of the people who informed me of this titan's existence."

Zackly hummed as he pointed to the area between Mikasa and Bertholdt. "Can you two confirm this is true?"

The two nodded, briefly caught off guard by the question as Zackly followed up with, "Were either of you two present during any interactions between Cadet Armin and the Rogue titan."

Bertholdt put his hand up, wringing his hands nervously and stepping forward. "I was present during Armin's interactions with the Rogue titan."

And as soon as Bertholdt spoke Armin began to feel bad for him because he was sure that Bertholdt was attempting to get the spotlight off of him as soon as possible-the poor guy already looked like he was going to pass out and he hadn't even had to answer any difficult questions yet-that was _not _the right thing to say.

The background murmurs that had stayed relatively quiet since the introductions began to rise again as Bertholdt looked around, stopping on Armin and silently asking for help but Armin had none to give.

"Could you please give the court an account of all of his and the titan's interactions?"

"Ah…well he didn't actually really interact with the titan at any point?" Bertholdt offered, looking down at the floor. "After we took back the supply depot we came across the Rogue titan, and it looked to be um, kind of passed out. He and I debated whether it was dead or not for a moment and then it just um, got up and left. Armin took off and I followed him while he told other people to protect the titan and gave his speech but we never really, uh, interacted with it much."

Huh?

Bertholdt wasn't wrong in any of the things he said but Armin did notice that he was missing a very vital part of his statement, a part that Armin had kind of been betting on in order to shake the metaphorical pot a bit.

He didn't mention that Armin had suggested that they try to get the titan to carry the boulder, and Armin highly doubted that Bertholdt had forgotten about that.

So why not mention that, even just briefly? Was Bertholdt trying to help him?

"Armin Artlet, is that true?" Came Niles' voice once more, although this time it sounded much more unsure. "You did not have any true chances to interact with the titan?"

"No sir."

"So you defended a titan you knew nothing about, an uncontrollable beast which you trusted based on what, your feelings. What if it had simply been biding its time, its true plan to harm humanity?"

So this was the route Nile was going to go now. Although it may have seemed like Nile was attempting to degrade him on the surface, Armin could easily see past it.

He'd realized that Armin really didn't have much to do with the case and ultimately wouldn't be the final deciding factor so destroying his reputation wasn't' worth it. He had to destroy all faith in the Rogue titan itself, had to make others understand his point of view. Had to make others see that this titan was dangerous and in some ways Armin empathized with him.

Not enough to truly feel bad, but at least the sentiment was there.

"Sir I had good reason to believe that the Rogue titan would benefit humanity so I acted accordingly. We've never seen a titan like this before so there was no precedent for me to act upon."

"But we have, haven't we?" Nile sneered. "We've certainly seen titans that are _different _before, hell one of them was even responsible for the hole in Trost itself."

Armin's blood ran cold. Although he'd previously made the connection himself, to be honest he'd forgotten about them and Nile did have somewhat of a point. The issue was that he hadn't been there while Armin watched the Rogue titan rip through its kin with a type of rage he'd never seen before.

Commander Nile hadn't been there, and neither had Judge Zackley.

"But I-"

"If I may interrupt." Came Erwin's voice, startling Armin. He'd kept Commander Erwin and Levi in the back of his mind, but up until now he'd simply assumed that they were going to let the trial play out, let Nile ask his questions and then propose an ultimatum at the end.

Looks like that was certainly not the case.

"Although at a first glance due to their differences from other titans it is very easy to assume that the Rogue titan may be similar to the only other two exceptions, our resident titan researcher, Hanji Zoe, has recently explained to me how the two are distinctly different and exactly why the Rogue titan is likely to be on our side."

Armin's eyes widened. So he had been right to assume earlier that Hanji had been sent by Erwin for some extra information before the case starts. It hadn't just been curiosity that led them down there, it had been a calculated move to create a better and more informed defense.

"Oh pray tell."

"According to the descriptions of the Rogue titan given by Armin and his fellow soldiers who were present during the Trost battle the titan has quite a few features not shared with its Armored or Colossal counterparts, such as two of its most striking features, it's jaw and ears. Both are highly irregular for a normal titan, meaning that it is certainly not one of those, and neither are those features present on our previous two exceptions, these are unique to the Rogue."

Erwin paused, taking a moment to pull a scroll out of his back pocket, unraveling it to reveal the artist's rendition Armin had been shown the morning. "Assuming that you all have seen this depiction, this is most likely what your general view of the Rogue is, and while it does contain two of the titan's most striking features those are not the only features that are unique to the Rogue."

He pulled a paper from behind the one he was holding and Armin immediately recognized it. It was his Walls awful rendition he had tried to make earlier this morning and holy shit was it even worse now that he was looking at it.

"From the accounts of Cadet Armin we have also been able to learn that the Rogue titan also possessed a far more muscular body than its kin, as well as rudimentary claws, which were spotted during the battle of Trost being used to tear titans apart. But aside from that its arguably most important traits for our purposes are focused within the titan's eyes. The Rogue titan has front facing eyes, which are not at all unusual for most titans, however what is unusual is that its eyes have been spotted with slitted pupils which were also able to focus on individual objects."

"So you believe that this titan is a sort of new breed?" Zackley questioned, although Armin was sure that he already knew the answer.

"Yes sir, and with all of the evidence we believe that this titan may actually be the biological predator of the mindless titans we are familiar with."

The courtroom erupted in shouts, both from skeptics and believers alike who couldn't believe what they had just heard. After all nothing like this had ever been seen before, never even had been thought to be a possibility, and now here, in one of the biggest court cases in, well, quite a while, here Erwin was, claiming that it was possible and did in fact exist.

Rather than wait for anything to quiet down Erwin simply continued explaining, "Almost all of these traits are present in nature's other predators, such as the claws and eyes being present in the common housecat and the large ears being similar to a wolves' in nature. With all the information being presented we have more than enough reason to believe that this titan is a predator."

Commander Nile seemed to be the first to regain his bearings, for better or for worse and asked, "And if it is predator to titans, if that is even possible, what makes you think that it will only attack titans. What makes you think it still doesn't have a vested interest in humans."

"Cadet Mikasa Ackerman is proof enough that it has no interest in humans, isn't that right?"

"Ah, yes!" She responded, seemingly shocked at her sudden calling. "When I ran out of gas and was on the ground it ignored me in favor of attacking the titan ahead of me."

"And how would you plan on utilizing this fact to humanity's advantage?" Judge Zackley asked and Nile continued to sputter.

"Sir you can't possibly be thinking of-"

"Along with its other traits that have linked it to common predators we also have reason to believe that the Rogue titan holds pack bonding instincts which we could manipulate. That way anything that we consider to be important or an issue will become important to the Rogue titan as well."

The judge seemed to think for a minute, writing something down and humming under his breath. "And if it doesn't work? I assume you have a plan in case you are unable to control the Rogue titan."

Levi stepped forward. "Regardless of the shit's species, a titan is still a titan." He held up one of his hands, miming holding one of his swords. "It'll be no match for me if it comes down to it. I'll kill the Rogue titan without a second thought."

"Understandable. And do you truly believe that this titan will benefit humanity?"

It took Armin a moment to realize that Zackley was talking to him, asking for his final confirmation.

"Yes sir, I really do."

He took a moment to sign a paper before harshly slapping a hand down onto his desk. "It is done then. Cadet Armin Artlet you are hereby ordered to travel outside the wall and Support the Survey Corps on their mission to capture the entity known as the Rogue titan."

_There was a kid pointing at him. Pointing with a blank stare as two men stood behind him, and despite the fact that he could understand nothing,the words becoming nothing more than a thick slurry in his head, he could feel the fear gripping him like a vice._

_These people were bad news and despite the overwhelming fear he couldn't help but feel betrayal and sadness beginning to inch their way in, even moreso as the kid turned and walked past the men once they began to move forward._

_He was grabbed roughly by the shoulders and despite every bone in his body screaming that he was in trouble, that he had to get away he couldn't move. _

_They pulled him away, locking his wrists in chains that were far too tight and pulling him by the collar of his shirt forward into some sort of carriage that certainly wasn't meant to fit as many people as it had._

_As he was shoved in he caught a glimpse of someone, a blond woman who was crying along with him as he got an overwhelming urge to tell her that everything would be okay, that he would protect them and that these people were not match for him, but something in the back of his mind told him it wasn't true._

_He couldn't do anything and he had no idea why._

_The ride was short and cramped and despite the small bit of fresh air he got as they pulled him back out of the vehicle he didn't feel comforted or even the least bit grateful. Instead the small bit of comfort that he had gained while sitting had left him leaving nothing but terror to take its place and suddenly he was drowning in it._

_He didn't want to move, honestly didn't think he could. The ground seemed to sway beneath him as he continued to stare downwards, not daring to lift his head but he was soon being urged forward by a cylindrical object pointing at his back._

_Step after step he moved closer to the building, no, the compound that was ahead of him, not even allowed to look back and see that woman suffering what was surely a similar fate._

_Once inside they strapped him to a chair, the bindings rubbing his skin raw as he struggled to get free. This couldn't be happening, no there was no way that this was happening. Certainly he'd wake up and look to his side and see his family, safe and sound and not at all here._

_That this wasn't happening to him, wasn't happening to her._

_One of the men in front of him was speaking again, now with gloved hands and face coverings within the dim lighting he was struggling to see if it was the same person or a different one, but at this point he supposed it didn't matter._

_They were asking something, probably something important but he couldn't hear them through the cotton in his ears, everything sounding far too distant and quiet. _

_He tried to tell them to speak up, to just ask a bit louder but then the hair on the back of his head was gripped as his head was forced up and down in a jerky facsimile of a nod. He wanted to scream no, that this wasn't what he wanted, that he didn't even know what was going on but the nod seemed to be enough for these people._

_A knife was held up to his face, just close enough to graze his nose and allow him to feel exactly how sharp he was and he was struggling again, pulling his head and arms back, doing whatever he could to get away, but there was no need._

_The knife was removed as he breathed a sigh of relief but as quick as it was taken away the knife was back, digging into his knuckles with a force that was much more intense before._

_He jerked, the knife staying put as it continued to dig further into his flesh, and just for a moment the cotton cleared as he heard a very clear._

"_Just remember, you deserve this."_

_And the knife came down._

Eren awoke in a cold sweat.


	13. I Mean, Eren's There In Memory

The days after the trial were...hectic for Armin to say the least. Between the emotional high of winning the trial and the quick slap of reality that was dealt to him directly afterwards as he was locked back in his cell for processing, to the simple issue of who's squad he was going to become a part of, a lot had happened within the last week.

The worst of which being when he was told that not only would he have to face relatively constant surveillance from at least one or more persons deemed capable by Judge Zackley at all times but that he was also no longer allowed to attend the 104th cadet graduation ceremony, something he had been very much looking forward to.

And yes, he understood why both precautions were in place as each were both to keep him from slipping away without the Survey Corps noticing, but he couldn't help but feel that the second condition was less practical and more personal.

After all with the first precaution in place he could easily stand behind stage as Captain Levi or Hanji watched over him, as they were both going to have to go to the ceremony with Commander Erwin anyway, and the problem would be solved but no. He'd been specifically barred from going, and thus barred from seeing his friends for what may be the last time.

It was certainly an odd thought. That some of the people he'd known, lived with for the past three years he'd never be able to see again due to nothing but a silly court order that was made with the false assumption of him knowing anything about the Rogue titan.

Well, he supposed that that wasn't the only reason he was upset, as if it were only that Armin knew that he'd be able to see some of them once more when they joined the Survey Corps themselves and others occasionally when leaving the walls or traveling further inward.

No, his reason for wanting to go was far more selfish.

He wanted to see how many of them had made it.

How many people had escaped death only to be told that their savior-and that's really what the Rogue titan was, as much as people tried to deny it-was nothing more than a beast that didn't truly mean its actions. How many of his fellow cadets had been spat on by people who've never even seen a titan as they grieved over their loved ones and cheered for the lives that were saved.

And maybe it hadn't been as intense for them as it had been for Armin, as every single person in the trial who claimed that they should simply sit back inside the walls and wait, as there just_ had _to be some kind of reason as to why the Armored titan didn't break down the main wall this time, reminded him of Eren.

Reminded him of how Eren spent his entire life yearning for freedom, of how he was willing to risk everything in case it meant that he would at least get a small glimpse of what he was after.

They reminded Armin in a paradoxical sort of way, as the more those people both in and out of the courtroom spoke of simply hunkering down and living "calm" lives within the walls the less Armin saw them as actual people and the more he began to see them as the types of characters that Eren would mock, putting on an awful falsetto and saying the most absurd things just to get a laugh.

Or, at the very least Armin thought they were absurd at the time, because as he was transported through the inner city and prepped to head to the Survey Corps headquarters he swore that some of those people were quoting Eren word for word.

It made Armin angry that they would dare desecrate his friends memory by making such absurd statements in earnest, and while he was aware that his anger towards these people was irrational and unwarranted that didn't stop the rage that bubbled in his chest as he had to hear another person talk about how they 'Didn't understand why the Survey Corps were necessary because they already had the Walls in place.'

Thousands of people had died, and will die in order to protect them and all they cared about was the arbitrary amount of tax money that they wouldn't even notice missing.

Armin supposed that they talked this way because they had never actually had to face any effects from the titans (Although many liked to talk about how they didn't want a wave of poor refugees from Trost invading their city like those from Wall Maria had done) and thus were more inclined to think that everything was just being dramatized.

But it wasn't like that made any of their actions and words acceptable.

After all, enrolling in the military at this point was as simple as signing up under whatever name you liked, so it wasn't as if there was really any excuse for not helping out humanity.

This topic was one of the few lines of conversation that he'd only been able to talk about with Eren previously, as even though Eren had struggled to understand the complex politics and interactions between the military and the people, he more than made up for it in spirit and determination.

(And Armin also had the feeling that Eren knew far more than he let on. That he really didn't need for Armin to describe every little intricacy that he found fascinating with society but simply did asked so that Armin could enjoy describing it to him.)

Anybody else that he'd attempted to talk to on the issue either notably zoned out after five minutes (Mikasa) or simply countered everything with the fact that they were rich so they could do whatever they wanted (Jean).

Which was why it was so shocking when he had offhandedly brought up the topic to Hanji while making the final move to the base that they expressed full support.

"It's because they're cowards who're afraid of experiencing anything outside of their false comfort that was created on the backs of the uncomfortable."

"Huh?"

Hanji blinked at him. "Weren't you the one who just asked why none of those rich bastards are unwilling to even think about leaving the Wall?"

Ah...he must have been thinking aloud. "Um, well it was meant to be rhetorical I guess?"

"Rhetorical or not I still agree with your sentiment." Hanji replied, shrugging their shoulders. "They're afraid of what they haven't seen and attempt to keep it that way, leaving other people hurt in the process."

They pulled off one of the water satchels from their side and handed it to Armin, who suddenly realized that he hadn't been able to get a drink in who knows how long, so he quickly grabbed the pouch, pulling the cap off as fast as possible and drinking eagerly.

"I really don't agree with a lot of what they say or do to be honest." Hanji admitted looking over their shoulder nonchalantly. "Which is why I'm taking you to the graduation ceremony anyway."

Armin choked, water spilling out of his mouth and making its way down to his shirt. They were...what? They were gonna take him anyway?

"Isn't that…" He took a moment to catch his breath, "Isn't that illegal?"

"Are you gonna tell anyone?" They retorted, a smirk making its way to their face. "Don't worry, we'll keep you backstage and such so you'll be able to see your friends but won't be able to talk or anything."

"Ah, I see."

Armin was...shocked to say the least. Originally he'd thought he'd fucked up the moment he realized that he'd been thinking aloud but the way Hanji responded made it seem like they were almost prepared-no_ familiar _with the question.

Which gave Armin a question his own.

"Does everybody in the Survey Corps feel the same way?"

"Hm?

"About the people in the Inner Wall and such, I mean."

Hanji put a hand on their chin, looking up thoughtfully. "Hm, well it really depends. Many of the new recruits don't really care, Erwin is nothing but respectful-unless you catch him after a meeting-and Levi, by the Walls Levi hates them."

"Wait, like, Captain Levi? Humanity's strongest?"

"Oh yeah, I can't count the number of meetings he's been kicked out of after cursing out one of the top officials there, and while I agree with everything he's saying, the man needs to learn some tact."

Well that would certainly explain the attitude that he witnessed the night before the trial. At the time he'd simply chalked it up to annoyance at having to be awake at such a late hour combined with exhaustion from the mission they had just returned from but given what Hanji had said, it was looking more and more like that was just how the man was.

"Is it really that much of a common occurrence?"

"Oh my Walls Armin you have no idea. I mean this one time…"

"Did he-did he really throw a bottle of cleaner wrapped in a towel at Commander Nile? Doesn't that count as like, insubordination or something?"

"Oh it certainly fucking did!" Hanji exclaimed with glee. "Normally he would have been thrown in a jail cell for a week but his explanation of 'it was to help him clean up after all the shit that was coming out of his mouth' made the judge laugh so hard that he escaped any serious punishments."

"Well aside from getting chewed out by Erwin, but that happens to everybody from time to time." They dismissed with a wave of a hand, and while Armin still had a great deal of respect for Captain Levi-after all who wouldn't for someone with a moniker like Humanity's strongest-the more and more he heard the less Levi felt like some oppressive force against the titans and the more he felt like, well, a human being.

"Oh, and then I've got to tell you about this one time when he led a group of Military Police through our titan tents-"

"Hanji, we're here." Came a voice from the side of the carriage startling both Hanji and Armin momentarily.

"Ah, Mike I was just telling Armin here some classic Survey Corps stories!"

Mike looked over to Armin, or at least Armin supposed he did. After all it was a bit hard to tell with his hair covering his eyes like that.

"Nothing bad I hope."

"Oh no no I wouldn't want to scare him right off the bat!" Hanji exclaimed, clapping her hands together with a smile that looked a bit suspicious. "That can wait until later."

Armin's eyes widened. What the hell did they mean by later?

He looked over to Mike for clarification but he simply nodded his head and closed the flap of the carriage behind him, signaling that it was time to leave the vehicle and enter the castle but as he was getting out Hanji stopped him.

"Now I know that you're tired, however since you seemed to enjoy my stories so much I'd like to offer you a once in a lifetime opportunity!" They beamed at him. "If you'd like rather than head to your sleeping quarters first I could walk you around the base and even show you a part of my research that I have ongoing, which I think you'd really enjoy and will probably have to see at some point anyway, so why not now!"

They adjusted their glasses, light now bouncing off of them menacingly. "So what'd you say, would you like a tour of our research facility by the Survey Corps one and only lead researcher?"

Armin opened his mouth to respond, ready to accept the offer until he got another good look at Hanji's face. While the idea of getting a first hand look into what was probably some interesting titan was certainly tempting, there was something about Hanji's face that threw him off, something that told him that if he accepted now it wouldn't end well for him.

And considering what Mike had just asked moments prior, he wasn't exactly sure he wanted to deal with that right now.

Placing a smile upon his face he responded, "Ah, thank you, but I think I'll pass for now. I'm quite tired from the long ride actually."

"Eh?" Judging by the look on Hanji's face, Armin would say that they didn't expect to be turned down. "Wait, wait, don't you want to see what we've done?"

"No, I'm good." and with that Armin began to follow Mike into the castle, walking a bit faster than he normally would as he could hear Hanji trailing behind him, begging him to think it over one last time.

Although it had been annoying at the time, currently Annie was thankful that Bertholdt had been one of the people to call witness at the trial because she was almost certain it would have been impossible to get information on it otherwise.

The newspapers about the trial had gone into print the same day the he had arrived back on camp, however not only were they a fucking pain to obtain, according to what Bertholdt had told her they were an extreme compression of what had actually happened during the trial and it's outcomes.

Though she supposed that the exact details didn't matter all too much since the outcome would have been relatively favorable to them regardless, the more information they had the more likely they were to be able to account for any unexpected situations that may arise.

And they certainly needed to be prepared as they had already failed once due to naivety, which wasn't going to happen again.

But from everything Bertholdt had gleaned throughout the trial, it looked as if they currently held all the cards in terms of being able to find Eren and take him away first as it really became clear that even the Survey Corps had absolutely no clue what they were dealing with.

(Honestly though, the assumption that Eren's titan was made to hunt down other titans wasn't all that far fetched, considering that was what Eren had probably built his titan to do)

So with that issue squared away for now she and Bertholdt had both decided to focus on the other current big issue, Reiner.

Annie had thought he'd been messed up during Trost, however what they had witnessed then was almost tame compared to now.

During Trost Reiner while he had been acting strangely he had at least been functional but recently he'd just been an absolute mess.

He'd been spending far too much time on his own, purposely isolating himself from not only the other trainees-er, well technically none of them were trainees anymore-but Bertholdt and herself as well, which was some pretty suspicious behavior.

At first the two had let it be, as most people simply assumed that it was grieving over the comrades that had been lost, most specifically Eren as many were aware that while nowhere near as close to him as Mikasa or Armin had been Reiner had still cared for him a lot.

And that combined with all of the other casualties at Trost made it so that nobody really batted an eye at the fact that Reiner had been holed up in his bunk for a while, and considering the fact that he wasn't the only one to exhibit such behavior made his actions almost normal.

Except for the fact that Reiner knew Eren wasn't dead, unlike the other cadets, and both Annie and Bertholdt had made sure that he knew.

Which was what was making this whole situation so odd for the two at the moment, as unlike during Trost he was currently able to remember their mission, remember exactly what they came here to do and would end up doing and generally seemed to have no problems with it.

He'd accepted and supported every one of their ideas for capturing Eren up to this point and even seemed relatively ok with talking about most of the events at Trost (Bar during the time in which Eren was sealing the wall) yet he refused to leave the barracks and most of the time even just his bunk.

Reiner was acting almost a bad as Mikasa who, after the trial, had simply gathered all of Eren's stored civilian clothes along with his remaining personal belongings and holed herself up in her own bunk, but even she had exited a few times in order to eat or do menial tasks.

But the main difference there though was that Mikasa actually had a_ reason _for her behavior as from what Annie knew she had literally grown up with Eren whereas Reiner should be over whatever slump he was in by now.

Which was really the most concerning part to Annie as she had no fucking clue what could be wrong.

It obviously wasn't the Eren issue and while at first both she and Bertholdt had chalked it up to the guilt over being a part of the fall of Trost, (Something that despite her frustration with his actions she couldn't have truly blamed him for) but there was something wrong about that too.

He was far too comfortable when talking about Trost and some of the people that had lost their lives there for it to be that, and even if he was simply comfortable talking both she and Bertholdt had talked it over and realized that his actions weren't adding up.

When they'd talked with him during Trost he'd been basically attempting to separate himself from the situation, trying to forget his hand in it but when they had met up with him after Trost something had changed.

He had been acting almost...normal for a time, discussing what their next move would be now that Eren was outside the wall and being every single bit the good Warrior he was supposed to be.

And they had been relieved. Finally, _finally _after all the odd shit he had pulled and said Reiner was back, and maybe what he had done was all an act and maybe it wasn't but that didn't matter. What mattered now was that Reiner could actually pull his weight in the upcoming plan and once more became someone that Annie and Bertholdt could put their trust in.

Or at least he had been.

Reiner had stuck with them during the cleanup of Trost, actually taking the lead for once and finding them new areas to help clean up but it seemed like this was less of an attempt at taking leadership and authority and more of an attempt to keep them close while avoiding the other cadets.

Three times Reiner had pulled them away from an area with cadets already present, claiming that they "Already had enough people so we wouldn't be of any help." even when it was obvious that there were too few people to clean up the mess that had been left.

On the fourth time they had gotten stuck, being called over to help break up, move, and identify those within a titan pellet along the likes of Jean and Sasha. A disgusting job, however not particularly hard considering what else they could have been doing.

But Reiner had been a mess throughout the entire process, hands shaking as he gripped the equipment, and refusing to look anyone in the eye.

It was obvious that something had happened, and Annie found it very likely that, whatever it was, it had occurred sometime after Armin's plan and before clean up efforts began.

Though that was where the issue lied, wasn't it? There weren't any events that she knew of which had occurred during that time period so whatever had happened to Reiner had been personal, something he was still refusing to say anything about for some reason.

Which was why she and Bertholdt were going to confront him on it.

While Annie would have been content with simply leaving him to stew in the weird self-pity he's currently in right now, a part of her worried that whatever he fucked up would be something that came back to bite them in the ass at some point, leading to a possible total failure of the mission, depending on what it was.

(and she was also worried about Reiner, who was visibly tearing himself apart over what had happened, who she had seen falling apart for a while but refused to admit that it was happening until it could no longer be ignored)

But they couldn't do it while Reiner still had himself trapped within the barracks. No, it was far too risky to attempt talking about any sort of sensitive information. They'd already almost been caught once and had only barely been able to play it off because the person who had heard was Connie and Connie is, well, an idiot.

They'd have to talk with him once he was forced out of the barracks.

They'd have to talk to him after the graduation ceremony.

Armin ended up being placed within Hanji's research division, something he learned after he took a very well needed nap, and while this development wasn't exactly surprising it was still a bit surreal to hear.

"Overall there's not too much difference between being placed within my division or Levi's other than time dedicated to research and such." Hanji had explained to him when he had first asked what that meant for him. "With me you'll get to do a lot more hands on research and a lot less cleaning but that's really it."

And while Armin didn't think they were lying to him, something told him that Hanji hadn't exactly given him the full story.

Something which was confirmed once he first entered their so called "lab".

The building itself was just off of the main dirt road, a beaten path leading to its stone entrance which was covered by a surprisingly light door. He could see faint light shining underneath the frame, which he had assumed was due to a use of lanterns along with natural window lighting.

That assumption was quickly proven wrong as he swung the door open only to narrowly avoid a blast of flame aimed in his direction.

"What the fuck…" he muttered as he looked towards the direction of the flame only to be met with the very apologetic face of Hanji as they held up a piece of meat in one hand and an odd contraption with a gas canister on its end in the other.

They placed the objects they were holding down onto the table behind them before they rushed over to him, repeating "Sorry, sorry, didn't realize you'd be walking in."

After looking over his face for a few worryingly long seconds they let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!" They exclaimed, placing a hand over their chest and dropping their head downwards. "I worried that for a second there I had burnt the face off of my most valuable source of information!"

While Armin was still a bit miffed at the fact that he had been less than ten centimetres away from losing his entire face he simply put on a smile and told them, "Don't worry about it, I should have knocked first. What were you attempting to do anyway?"

Hanji's face lit up, and for a second Armin feared that he had truly made the worst decision possible.

They ran back over to the table where they had placed the odd gas contraption-odd, Armin could have sworn they had had a piece of meat on that table as well-and quickly shoved it into his hands.

"This is a little something that Moblit and I like to call a flamethrower and it's a heat based weapon that we hope to possibly use on the titans!" They maneuvered the device around in Armin's hands until he was gripping two bars in one hand, at which point he noticed two things.

One, the bar the was the furthest away from him had a bit of give, enough so that it could be pulled back to touch the closer bar, and two once he did that a small hissing sound escaped from a small opening present on top of the bars and from another opening that came from the container that was behind the bars.

He continued to carefully pull the bar back and then let it return to its original position but for the life of him couldn't figure out how something like this was supposed to produce the flame that he had previously seen.

That was until Hanji gripped his hand and said, "Not like that, you gotta do it quick!" and rapidly forced his hand to close.

He heard a sharp pop and then suddenly a pillar of flame was shooting forward from the top of the bars, going directly over Hanji's shoulder.

Armin dropped the device in shock, the flame dying out the moment he let go and simply stared at Hanji.

'Holy shit.' He thought, 'This person is absolutely insane' as while any sane person would have been at least mildly perturbed by the close brush they just haad with death Hanji just reached down and picked up the flamethrower.

"Hm, I thought it was a bit stronger than that." They stated, unscrewing the gas canister from the back and clicking the bars together a few times. A few sparks flew and a small flame seemed to pop up from the bars, but it was nothing like the blitz he'd seen only moments prior.

Although now that he wasn't distracted by that he realized he recognized the sound.

"Are those bars made of steel?"

Hanji smiled down at him "Ooooo good eye! The outer bits are but the insides are hollow." They pulled the bars closer to their face, unscrewing a small joint that Armin had seen earlier, and popped the contraption into two pieces, handing one of the halves to him.

Just as he suspected, although not visible from the outside, a small piece of flint was present just atop of another smaller gas canister.

If he had to guess the flint and steel were used to make a spark which was then held by flowing gas below it and increased in power by the second gas canister. While the creation itself wasn't anything revolutionary, the design and ease of the contraption had him in awe.

Even if these weren't applicable for titan use it could still be an extremely useful military weapon within the walls, though it was a shame that there would be no way to test them until the next expedition.

"Pretty cool right?" Hanji asked him, clicking the flamethrower a few more times in amusement. "It's a shame that they don't really do much to titans though."

"You've gotten to bring them on expeditions before?"

"No, no, no, that'd be far too dangerous! We've just tested em' on our current captured titans."

Armin paused for a second. Did he just hear them correctly? "...captured titans?"

"Yup!" They grinned, walking straight through a curtain that Armin had previously thought was a wall. They gathered the material in their fingers, pulling it back to reveal a large expanse of flattened ground with nothing but a giant tent and two titans sitting in the middle of it.

He scrambled back for a second, an instinctive reaction to spotting two titans who were just laying under the tent before he realized the extent of their restraints.

Each titan currently had their jaws bolted shut, thick steel cables attaching to the bolts and forcing them to lay on the ground. Their hands and feet were in a similar situation with oversized tacks shoved into the meaty parts of their appendages and joints, leaving the titans to do nothing but squirm.

It was pitiful if Armin was being honest. These beasts could do little more than open their eyes and struggle against their restraints and he had to commend the research team for being able to contain such powerful beasts with ease.

"Cute, aren't they?" Hanji asked him, and although Armin was set to respond with a resounding no, they continued, pointing to each titan. "That one's Sonny and that one's Bean!"

"I see…"

Armin didn't really know how to respond, after all it wasn't every day that he came face to face with two restrained titans, much less two named ones.

Hanji didn't seem to be all that fazed by the situation though and simply walked out into the clearing, saying hi to the numerous other researchers that Armin had missed upon his first glance. Judging by how casual they were with the whole situation he assumed that this was a common occurrence.

Or at least he did until Hanji placed one of their hands upon the smaller titans face, turning back to him and exclaiming, "See, totally restrained."

There was a small bit of uproar from the crowd but mostly from one man who ran to rip them away from the titan, and just in time too. As they moved the titan swung its massive head, something that probably wouldn't have been lethal but certainly could have caused some nasty impact injuries.

"Section leader, you're too reckless!"

"It's fine, it's fine, I just wanted to show Armin my boys!" Hanji complained but they were already being dragged away from the "boys" in question and back to the lab where Armin was still standing.

"I apologize for my lateness, I was grabbing another notebook in order to finish documenting the results for today." The man said and it took Armin a second to realize that yes, this man was talking to him. "I'm Moblit Berner, the Fourth Squad's vice captain. It's a pleasure to meet you and I hope that this one hasn't caused any issues for you."

Armin thought back to how he had almost lost his eyebrows and a good chunk of his face upon entering the lab and, ignoring Hanji's protests said, "No, so far everything has been good."

Moblit let out a sigh at that, which let Armin know that what happened to him was certainly_ not _an isolated incident, and dropped Hanji, who floundered on the floor for a moment.

"As I'm sure Hanji told you already, those are our two current captured titans. We use them in order to test any new materials that we plan to carry outside of the Walls as well as to study overall titan behavior." He explained, ignoring Hanjis "Hey!" in the background. "The tent currently over them is being used to limit their sunlight intake which we're studying the effects of."

Armin tilted his head. That actually sounded...kinda interesting. Although it would be impossible to enact on a large scale outside the Walls, depending on the results it would be relatively easy to build on a small part of the main Walls.

"Yeah and we're also working on sociability! Seeing if it is at all possible for a titan to understand a human!"

Ah, and that sounded far less interesting.

Apparently Moblit found that idea less than optimal as well because he was quick to remind them that no, that was not the main point of the current testing.

"But it could be, couldn't it?" Hanji protested. "And besides we'll have to test that a bit more before our next expedition so we can try and figure out how and if his titan can respond to commands." They pointed back at Armin who was not so happy to have the spotlight aimed back upon him.

Moblit looked up at him and in that moment Armin tried the hardest he could to communicate with his eyes that no, he did not in fact want to be a part of those experiments.

Luckily for him it seemed that his pleading worked as Moblit simply sighed once more and asked, "But don't you have to head down to the graduation ceremony with Commander Erwin? If there's any extra preparations you'd like to make you should probably make them now."

"Ah." Hanji responded, and Armin could almost see the lightbulb go off in their head. "C'mon Armin, you're gonna come help me out with that."

"Wait, why me?"

But Hanji had already grabbed him and pulled him outside of the tent ignoring his protests as they did so.

"Wait, wait, I don't understand." Armin called out as he pushed himself away from them. "Why do you need me to ask for preparations?"

"Oh, I'm not going to ask Erwin for anything."

"Huh?"

"You still want to go to the graduation ceremony right?" Hanji asked, smiling back at him. "Well this is your chance."

Overall the graduation ceremony wasn't too impressive, however it's not as if Armin had expected it to be. From what he'd heard even in a normal year the ceremony itself only consisted of a normal dinner and an acknowledgement from the Commander, but with the tragedy at Trost any semblance of a celebratory mood had been wiped away.

The only thing that lingered was the faint excitement of those who knew that their chosen division would allow them to escape the nightmare that they had seen, and even then that was dampened too.

He supposed it could have something to do with the fact that the most excited people were usually the top ten who would be allowed to join the Military Police but the two gaping holes in that lineup simply served as a reminder of why the mood was so low.

It reminded Armin of the ration lines that he had seen the week after Shiganshina fell, people idly crammed together with what should have been excitement around them but only left a feeling of dread.

Everyone here was a survivor and it showed.

But Armin didn't necessarily care about any of that, what he mostly cared about was Mikasa, who seemed to be doing much better.

He had only been able to get a bit of a glimpse before being pulled back around the corner that separated backstage from front, and while he was annoyed at the fact that his friends, his comrades were right there, right in front of him, and he was unable to even see them, Armin understood the reasoning.

That didn't stop him from making Hanji at least promise to let him see who ended up joining the Survey Corps though.

The whole situation was frustrating-especially considering that he really had no information to give so hypothetically the court order was null and void-but he was glad to see that Mikasa was doing better.

She still looked tired and now a bit thinner since he had last seen her but it had really been the dullness of her eyes that had bothered him in court. She had looked like a zombie who had only attended the trial due to force and had spoken similarly, but now she looked as if she at least had some motivation.

Though it was still obvious that the past week's events had taken their toll on her.

To be honest what he wanted to do most now was simply talk to her, to remind her that everything was going to be okay, to remind her that you can't take something like the death of a loved one all at once, that you needed to take it in days. Baby steps, as his grandfather had once said.

Although if he was being truthful, he really just needed to tell that to himself.

The commander's speech had been short and sweet, shelling out the bare minimum of emotion and giving condolences but to Armin it was obvious that he had been attempting to distance himself from them.

From the group of trainees that he had already sent and was going to continue to send to their deaths.

'It must be hard.' is what he thought as he listened to the speech. 'It must be hard to train up children, year after year, to the best of your abilities and know that they still won't stand a chance against their enemies.'

A sentiment which continued even as he watched Commander Erwin move past him behind stage and out to the front.

And Armin had to hand it to him, despite only telling the truth of the dismal situation within the Survey Corps there was something about the way that he said it, something that sounded almost hopeful.

It was almost as if he was challenging each cadet there to change those statistics, to join and show the titans that it would no longer be this way, that they would be able to make a difference within this hellish world.

Or maybe that was him attempting to twist the words into something that would make himself feel better. After all he had already been forced into the Survey Corps, so it wasn't as if he got to even make the choice.

Whether his interpretation was correct or not it wasn't like it would truly matter in the end anyway. At this point most people had probably made up their minds and something like a quick speech was unlikely to change that, which is partially why he suspected Erwin had made the speech so short in the first place.

"He's really got a way with words, doesn't he?" Hanji asked by his side, snapping him out of his thoughts and Armin blinked at them. It wasn't that he disagreed, however he simply didn't know what to say.

"It's something that makes him a fantastic leader, and to be honest if given enough time and circumstance he could probably convince a whole army to run to their deaths." They continued pushing their hand up against their cheek wistfully. "But it also seems to make him incredibly lonely doesn't it?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand?"

"It's fine, you don't have to. Hell, it's not really something I understand either, but it's certainly something to be wary of."

They turned to him, the playful glint that had previously always been present in their eyes now gone. "The Survey Corps works best as a team, as a cohesive unit. Don't forget that regardless of what's happened there will always be people to support you."

"Ah." Armin responded, but he really didn't understand what Hanji was trying to get at here. It seemed like they were specifically attempting to get a point across but he really had no idea what it could be.

Hanji hummed at him, turning back to look around stage as the sound of footsteps made their way to his ears, most likely from all of the cadets that decided the Survey Corp life was not for them, and while Armin didn't personally blame them a scene popped into his head unbidden.

It was of Eren, standing in front of him as almost everyone turned to scramble out of the area, not wishing to even be accidentally counted among those who truly wished to join the Survey Corps.

Eren would turn back to him and not so discreetly whisper "Pathetic." as he used a thumb to point to the leaving mass and Armin would smack him for his rudeness, reminding him that this was an official ceremony and not the time to bring his opinions into this.

It was an image of what could have happened, what should have been happening at this very moment rather than Armin being isolated backstage, alone and already having moved one step closer to his and Eren's dream. A reminder of what they had lost during the battle of Trost.

But Armin pushed those emotions aside, after all it wasn't as if they would help him any now.

It was Hanji though who truly brought him out of his thoughts and pulled his attention back to the real world.

"If you'd like to take a look now I believe that all of the people left are soon to be your comrades once more." They told him, motioning to around the corner.

When Armin took a peak he was actually somewhat shocked by the current selection. Mikasa had stayed, which was honestly a given considering that he had been shoehorned into the division, but Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner were each a bit of a shock.

Moreso Annie than the others as while he had heard both Reiner and Bertholdt mention possibly joining the Survey Corps at some point, Annie had been adamant on joining the Military police.

Or at least that's what Eren had told him before Trost.

And he couldn't help but wonder what the catalyst for this decision was, as Annie had been decisive with her choice to join the Military police for almost their entire time training, only wavering a small bit a couple weeks before graduation.

(But he knew the answer, he knew it was almost certainly Eren and he couldn't help but wonder if it was truly because she felt that joining the Survey Corps would be the right choice or if she simply felt responsible for his death.

After all, it had been her who told him how to move during Trost.)

Though ultimately reasoning didn't matter and Armin supposed he couldn't complain about having another highly skilled fighter in the Survey Corps.

Almost as much of a shock were Jean, Sasha, and Connie, the three last members and arguably the most nervous looking of all the cadets there, but there was a conviction in their eyes that Armin had never seen before.

Really there was a conviction within everyone that he was certain hadn't been present before and he guessed that if he looked in a mirror it would be within him as well. Trost had changed them, and now it was up to them to decide if that was a good thing or not.

As the group was dismissed Armin moved back behind stage, letting out a sigh as he did so.

"Someone you wanted to leave back in the Training Corps still standing there?" Hanji questioned, but they were back to their normal jovial tone.

Armin gave them a look. "No, its just…" He placed his hands together and rubbed his thumb along his palm. A nervous tick that Eren and Mikasa always used to comment on, claiming that he would get blisters that way. "I just wonder if this was the right decision for them to make. If I'm selfish for wanting them to make a decision that may get them hurt."

Hanji smiled back at him. "Who knows. Maybe it was a good decision, maybe not. Only time will tell."

They pulled him away from the stage, motioning for him to start walking back to the carriage, and while he had gotten to see his friends, the one thing that he had come for, Armin couldn't help but feel unsatisfied as he left.

Glancing back he noticed that everyone else had left, er, well almost everyone.

Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner were still there, although a little more off to the side putting them in a much clearer view for Armin. They were each clearly upset about something although Reiner seemed to be getting the brunt of it.

Despite not seeming to be the closest of friends Armin knew that the three at least somewhat cared for one another, meaning that something had happened between them, something that was obviously a big deal if Reiner was getting that distressed over it.

Maybe Annie's choice to join the Survey Corps hadn't been as planned as Armin thought.

He turned back around as Hanji called for him, claiming that the carriage was getting ready to leave and wouldn't be afraid to leave without him, although Armin knew it was an empty threat. The court order would prevent anything like that from happening.

As they rode back Armin did little more than stare at the curtained windows, blocked to make sure that nobody saw or questioned why the boy who was supposed to be staying monitored at the Survey Corps base was traveling and where they were going.

He understood the reasoning why, but it didn't stop the carriage from feeling closed off, as if it was a prison hiding him away from the outside world alone.

Although in a sense it was.

Hanji was the one to break the silence first, saying, "You know, it's not selfish to want your friends to be with you."

"Huh?"

"About your question earlier."

"Ah, I see." Armin responded quietly. "But it's sort of like I'm dragging them down with me isn't it? I shouldn't want them to be stuck along with me."

"Do you really think that little of them?"

"What?"

"Do you really think that little of your friends that you doubt they are able to make their own choices? You didn't have a choice in this situation but they did, you saw it for yourself."

"I don't...I don't doubt that but-"

Hanji cut him off, closing a hand in front of his face. "No buts. They got to make their own decision which means that you don't get to complain or worry about it. You only have to do your best to support them now."

Armin opened his mouth to protest but they cut him off once more. "And the last time I checked, questioning their placement decision isn't supporting them."

He went to protest once more but stopped himself before any words left his lips. They were right weren't they? Each and every single person left standing there had made their own decision to join.

They had sat and listened to Erwin's speech and heard the statistics and had still chosen to stay. The only thing that his questioning would do is instill uncertainty in them and Armin had seen what uncertainty does to squads.

He'd seen it firsthand with his own squad and never wanted to see it again.

Walls, he really was a terrible friend wasn't he? Wishing for them to join him in a dangerous situation and then potentially making it worse by questioning their own decision.

Hanji let out a sigh as Armin lowered his head in shame. He had been so caught up in his own feelings that he had forgotten to consider how his friends might feel. It was unacceptable.

"Y'know I'm not saying that you should never question or tell your teammates anything right?"

"Yes sir."

"Cut that shit out and look up at me." Hanji told him, leaning forward to look at him. "I'm not speaking to you as your Squad Leader or superior officer right now, I'm speaking to you as a fellow member of the Survey Corps, understand?"

Armin said nothing, but simply nodded his head looking up at Hanji and then quickly glancing back down at his lap.

"Hey." Hanji said once more, forcing Armin to look up at them. "It's okay to be sad y'know. You don't have to hold it in anymore"

"Huh?"

"You lost someone at Trost didn't you?" Hanji asked, although Armin was sure that they already knew the answer. "I've seen it since the trial. Every time it's brought up you speak as if you're trying to avoid talking about certain parts, as if you're trying to avoid remembering things."

Ah. They did know the answer.

"And with the trial and everything expected of you I'm sure you felt you had to force those emotions and thoughts down and be the perfect person the courts expected you to be."

Please don't remind him.

"But that's not how this works is it? You can't just push everything away and forget what you've lost."

Please don't.

"Armin, you don't have to pretend to be okay anymore. It's okay to be upset."

Armin felt his resolve crumple as tears began to pool in his eyes. He hunched over, bringing a hand to his chest as he gasped for air.

It wasn't okay, and it hadn't been okay for a long time because Eren was_ gone _, he was gone and he wasn't coming back and that wasn't how it was supposed to be.

They were supposed to graduate together, join the Survey Corps and go out and see the ocean, explore the world and all of the wonders it had to offer, everything that Eren had always said had been stolen from them.

Eren was supposed to be with him right now, getting ready to make that childish dream into a reality any way they could. He was supposed to be the one yelling encouragements at him and reminding them of why they were here, what they were supposed to be fighting for.

He was supposed to be here and being his brutally honest self, who had no trouble speaking his mind even if he never had the best ideas, and was always ready to speak up for Armin if needed.

He was supposed to be preparing to fight, to take back Wall Maria and see their home again, to move further beyond as they set their sights past the Walls where they had once lived and out towards the places they had never seen.

He was supposed to be alive. He was supposed to be here. He wa_ s supposed to be _**_here._**

But he wasn't.

Eren had sacrificed himself at Trost, throwing Armin out of that titan's maw and telling him to achieve that dream on his own. Armin had watched him go.

He wasn't coming back.

And that was the kicker wasn't it?

That no matter how much Armin cried and begged and wished it was it had been him instead Eren wasn't coming back.

No matter how many times Armin's first thought was to make sure that Eren got the information he did because he just knew that Eren would want to know about it, how many times Armin's first instinct was to try and remember when he'd see Eren next so that they can talk about what had happened Eren wasn't going to be there.

Eren wasn't coming back.

So why couldn't he accept it?

Why did he keep hoping, indulging himself in those stupid little fantasies of what could have been instead of facing and moving past reality.

Why couldn't he just accept what had happened?

Armin didn't know.

And that might have been the worst part.

He didn't know.

And for the second time since Trost Armin cried himself to sleep.

To be honest, Eren thought his current situation was pretty good all things considered.

Despite the struggle of the first day he had been able to make it to the large forest of trees, or at least one of them, and had been able to take solace in one of the higher branches as although he'd never really thought about it before the claws which lines his hands and feet made climbing a breeze.

His time spent up in the trees were relatively peaceful, amusing even, as while titans pooled around the base of his tree and attempted to climb none of them could reach him.

And even if they could Eren had seen how they attempted their climbs, with both arms outstretched and no way to grab him without falling out of the treetops themselves, so while he was resting he'd often sit and watch the titans make their futile attempts.

Of course that was only when resting.

At any other time he was on the ground tearing his new peanut gallery to shreds, something that never got old, and over the course of the past few days he had learned quite a few things about his titan form.

The first was that while his eyesight was absolutely horrific for objects up close and for distinguishing details he could actually see general shapes from quite far away, which was very helpful when attempting to avoid titan mobs, which he really needed to keep an eye out for.

On the first day within the tree he'd gotten cocky, having taken out quite a few titans on the drop down from the tree and not having had too much trouble with taking out the remaining few.

He'd stayed on the ground for as long as possible, going as far as to actively seek out a couple of titans on the edge of the forest before it happened. A mass of titans had come sprinting towards him and while he'd originally assumed he'd be able to take them out, without the element of surprise he'd been overwhelmed quickly.

Before he knew it he'd lost an arm and a leg, leaving him off balanced, defenseless, and scrambling for any tree he could get to.

From then on Eren had been much more cautious, waiting for a good mass of titans to build up beneath his tree before scouting the area and dropping down to take them out. The whole process was cathartic in a sense as titans would continually appear and pathetically attempt to get to him before being absolutely obliterated.

Which brought him to his second conclusion, that there was something fundamentally different about his titans compared to the mindless ones.

While the most obvious of this would be his physical traits, the thing that mostly tipped him off was the fact that despite looking almost the same and supposedly being made up of a similar, if not identical, material to the mindless titans they were still attracted to him, and Eren had a feeling it wasn't just because they could tell that he was a human within a titan.

If that was so the titans would have been focusing their attacks near his nape, attempting to dig the human part of him out, but they hadn't. They just simply tried to eat any part of him that they could get their grubby hands on.

It wasn't really the fact that there was a clear difference between his titan and the mindless ones that was important to him though, it was that if titans were attracted to titan shifters there was no way that the Armored and Colossal could have been surviving outside the Walls.

Of course at Trost he'd pretty reliably pinned down the fact that those two were likely within the walls but there'd always been that small bit of doubt up until now, a small voice in the back of his head that asked if he was looking at this deeply enough.

But now he was able to quash that down. The Armored and Colossal titans were within the Walls and almost certainly either a member of the Garrison or other Wall maintenance as there was no way that they could have been other cadets.

Annie would have told him if there were.

(Logically there was something telling him that he was wrong, that maybe Annie didn't know and it was far too early to be ruling out anyone within the 104th training corp, but that idea was just far too painful for him. It just couldn't be. There was no way that any of his fellow cadets would be willing to commit such an atrocity in cold blood and then live among the survivors for three years. There was just no way)

Which actually narrowed it down to a fairly small group of people and if you knew what to look for it'd be easy to pick them out in a crowd, something as simple as a temperature check would do the trick.

But of course it wasn't as if he could head back and tell anybody this. He'd seen all of the cannons pointed at him even as he carried that boulder to the Wall. He'd seen the fear and conviction in the soldiers' eyes as they waited for the command to fire, the one that would end his life.

Eren could tell when he wasn't wanted.

He'd have to return someday though, that wasn't debatable. Regardless of how the people thought of him he'd have to go back if not for Humanity's sake, then for Armin and Mikasa's as there was no way that he was going to abandon them.

If he wanted to save Armin, Mikasa, and everyone else he would have to go back, regardless of the consequences.

Preferably once he figured out how to get outside of his titan.

Annie had made it sound so easy each time that she had explained it to him but there must have been something he was doing wrong because every time he tried he simply threw his head back in his titan form as well.

Although much gentler this time.

Eren sighed, a small cloud of steam escaping from in between his teeth as he glanced back down at his quickly growing group of titans. It was almost time to launch another attack.

He wondered how Annie was doing.


	14. I Just Really Enjoy Writing Hanji

"You did_ what?"_ Annie asked in disbelief, as there was no way, no fucking way that Reiner had said what he just did.

Because doing that would have single handedly compromised the whole mission, it would have been absolutely disastrous and if he was telling the truth they should have been arrested, probably executed by now.

"What the fuck do you mean-and you just decided the best course of action was to sit on your ass for a week and say nothing about it!"

At this point Reiner looked like he was about to cry but Annie held zero sympathy.

"I didn't...I took care of it okay?" Reiner reasoned, "Its fine, so just drop it."

"What the fuck do you mean _took care of it!?"_ Annie seethed, still at least somewhat conscious of her surroundings. It wouldn't do for someone to hear their yelling and head over to listen. "You were nothing but absolutely fucking useless during Trost so-"

"Annie stop." Bertholdt told her, placing an arm in front of her as she noticed how much closer she'd moved towards Reiner. "Getting into a fight now will do nothing. We need to figure out what happened and fix the issue swifty and calmly."

"Oh I'm sorry that I'm the only fucking one who is pissed about this-" she stopped as she actually took a good look at Bertholdt.

Even though those words had been said with a perfect layer of calm it did nothing to stop the rage from seeping into his expression. He was just as upset as she was over this.

"I told you, it doesn't matter. I took care of it." Reiner spat, backing away.

"Took care of it how?" Bertholdt questioned, moving forward so that Reiner had no chance of escape. "And don't you dare tell me that you did something as idoitc as striking a deal with this person because we both know that that won't work."

"Why does it even matter to you? I already told you what happened."

Bertholdt took a deep breath, small bits of steam escaping on his exhale as he clenched his hands. "It matters because **_you_** freely gave away both of our identities to someone and won't _even fucking tell us who."_

Annie grabbed his sleeve, pulling him away from Reiner who was now cowering under the combined weight of their wrath but still refusing to give up any details.

"Weren't you the one who said we had to do this calmly?" Annie reminded him, moving forward to take his place. She was still pissed but the momentary distraction had allowed her to clear her head.

They weren't going to get anywhere by intimidating him as all it was doing was making Reiner retreat further into his shell and there was still something odd about this situation.

According to what he said, in his slip of the tongue he hadn't mentioned Annie at all so regardless of what happened she shouldn't have any suspicion placed upon her, but he had given himself and Bertholdt away.

So shouldn't he have been scared?

Scared that at any moment whoever this person was would go to the higher ups and tell them of the scenario? Scared of being suddenly trapped with no way to shift? Scared of sabotaging the whole mission?

But he wasn't, nor had he been throughout the whole week. He hadn't been scared, he'd been depressed, refusing to do his normal activities and talk with the rest of the cadets.

It simply didn't make sense.

"What did you do?" Annie asked, walking closer to him until she had to crane her neck up in order to look him directly in the eye.

To an outsider this may not have looked very intimidating due to the height difference, but Annie knew how Reiner ticked, knew that the way to get him to talk was by blocking off all possible exits and forcing it out of him.

And that was exactly what she planned to do.

Rather than answering her, Reiner simply looked down and away, beginning to shake as he looked for any possible escape.

"Reiner." Annie said, and he flinched, still refusing to meet her eyes. "I'm not going to ask again. What did you do." But he still refused to answer her.

His silence did tell her something though, that whatever he did was what was making him act this way. It was what he was so ashamed of and upset over, rather than who he had said it to being the problem.

It also meant that he probably hadn't made a deal with whoever he'd talked to and was probably telling the truth when he said that he'd...taken care of it.

Which meant at this point finding out who had heard him was a bigger priority than what he had done to that person.

Annie moved to the side, looking up to catch Reiner's eyes once more and asked. "Who did you say it to." and watched as his face crumpled into a pathetic expression.

"I didn't-I didn't mean…" She watched as he fought with himself for a moment, finally deciding to back up and give him some space.

"Reiner." was all she said before he slid down the wall he had held his back to and pulled his knees up to his chest in what was admittedly a pretty sad looking position.

The three were quiet for a moment, simply waiting for one of them to break the silence, to state the obvious and be done with it, but none were willing to do so.

Just as Annie was about to speak up Reiner began to speak.

"Marco." he said, quiet enough that if they hadn't been listening to him they wouldn't have heard. "It was Marco who I was talking to."

Ah.

She thought back to two empty gaps within the 104th top ten cadets.

He really had taken care of it.

Judging by the day and night cycle, Eren had been out here for at least two weeks, a neat fifteen lines in the trunk next to him telling him so.

The issue was that he had no clue if that number was correct as while he had seen fifteen sunsets as the days wore on he noticed himself feeling more and more tired, waking up later and later in the day. Something that he hadn't thought much of at first but was now really beginning to concern him.

It was, or at least should still be, Spring moving into Summer, which meant the days should have been getting longer and longer but recently he'd been waking up directly before sunset and falling asleep the moment the sun went down, wasting the day away.

He really shouldn't call it sleeping though, as this was far different than any unconsciousness he had experienced in his normal human body.

For one Eren never had to attempt to fall asleep at all, really it was quite the opposite. At one moment he'd be staring out at the sun, watching it dip below the horizon as the assorted titans below him settled in for the night, and the next he'd be opening his eyes, having been asleep for almost the entire day.

The other odd thing was both a blessing and a curse as he rarely ever dreamed while in that state, each night passing in the blink of an eye. It wasn't necessarily bad, nor something he hadn't experienced before, as he'd had similar experiences after a particularly rough day of training, but it was certainly unsettling.

He didn't mind it though, which had less to do with the lack of dreams itself and more what they replaced.

He hadn't had to deal with a single nightmare the entire time he'd been outside of the Walls which was a welcome change, if not an odd one. Although not exactly fun, he'd gotten used to waking up at least twice a week drenched in sweat and a scream on the tip of his tongue, dragging himself over to Mikasa or Armin's bunk for some much needed TLC.

Of course they'd gotten better over time and were now a far cry from the ones he had had at the start of training-even though people looked at him with sympathy during that time he knew that they resented him for interrupting their much needed sleep-but that had been slow. Gradual.

For them to now just...stop was a bit unnerving, though he supposed he shouldn't complain.

After all, it wasn't like they were totally gone.

Although dreams and nightmares were no longer common these weird fucking_ visions _were, or at least that was what he was calling them.

They certainly weren't dreams, they were far too vivid and realistic, a far cry to the normal nonsensical storylines he was used to, and if he was being honest they held far more resemblance to memories than anything else, but that was just impossible.

Yet he'd awoken thrice now, the unknown names of people he's never met on the tip of his tongue and distinct recollection of places he's never been.

It had started with his dream, vision, _whatever_, he'd had on the first night and while nothing had been as complex as that he'd continued to see the same faces, each in a different context every time.

He'd begun to recognize some patterns too.

Although he'd only experienced a total of four visions at this point every single one of them featured the same woman, blonde and with hair about the same length of Armin's and even though he couldn't remember or make out a single word he could tell that she meant well.

There was another blond person too, a kid whose face he could never quite make out, but he was far less prevalent in these sights, only appearing in about half of them and being far less important than whoever that woman was.

But the most baffling part of what he was seeing wasn't the people at all, no, that was almost normal. It was the places he was in, places far too different than anything he had ever seen.

Most of what he had seen seemed to be within the same or a similar city district with sprawling buildings and shops lining each corner and street, it almost looked like one of the merchant districts he had seen within Wall Maria.

Except everything was all wrong. Rather than the humble carts lining buildings with the occasional bakery on the side, everything seemed to be within these tall buildings, panels of glass larger than he'd ever seen allowing him to look inside.

There were these flashy signs, none of which he could read, and tall thin strips of metal holding up what looked to be an orb within a glass case for some reason. Hunks of metal reminiscent of carriages slowly rolled along the stone pavement as people in unfamiliar clothing made their way through the streets.

And yet despite everything being different, everything being odd and out of place, there was a distinct sense of familiarity, of belonging that never struck him as odd while within the vision but was jarring when it ended.

For whatever reason that place felt like home, felt the same way Shiganshina had way back when and it left Eren both comforted and confused. It was almost as if he'd been there before, no, he_ must_ have been there but he couldn't for the life of him think of where it would have been or who those people were.

The more he thought about it though the more his head hurt too, simply starting out as a dull ache and then exploding into a sharp pain if he wasn't careful, so overall he'd mostly let the whole situation be, figuring that it was likely some district within Wall Sina that he'd been taken too when he was younger.

(Except he subconsciously knew that that couldn't be it either. Eren had seen his own hands in these visions and they certainly weren't a child's. The point of view was all wrong as well.)

He knew that at some point he had been to almost all the districts within Sina, as having a father who was a certified medical genius had its own perks, but he really couldn't remember most of them, so it was certainly possible.

Eren signed, making another notch in his tree using a sharpened claw. Although time was a bit hard to tell out here, today he was probably only awake for around an hour before the horizon turned it's lovely shade of pink and the sun began to race towards it.

Even more odd was the waning group of titans beneath him, not even having reached an amount worth culling despite his last attack having been yesterday.

Scanning the area led him to find almost nothing as well, only one or two mindless titans stumbling aimlessly as their movements became more and more sluggish with the lack of sunlight.

It was both concerning and reliving, as something like that could only mean that his efforts were at least somewhat making a dent in the surrounding area titans, but Eren wasn't stupid enough to think that a simple lack of titans meant that he had truly begun to decrease their numbers.

If he wanted to continue to attack, if he wanted to continue to kill titans he'd have to move soon, leaving his small cover of the forest behind in search of fresh meat.

And unfortunately he knew exactly where to go in order to get it.

But that could wait until at least tomorrow, Eren thought as the sun dipped below the horizon, only leaving a small glow behind.

For now it was time to sleep.

It had only been about two weeks since the graduation ceremony but for Armin it felt as if it had been far longer.

Mikasa and others had been able to move in about a week ago but they had been almost immediately placed under the supervision of the Levi squad and as a result Armin rarely got to see them, only getting a chance during lunch and dinner hours.

Even then he'd only really gotten to briefly talk with them during half of the available lunch hours and even fewer dinners as Hanji and Moblit often ended up keeping him past those hours, forcing him to eat alone.

He didn't blame them though, as a majority of the time it was a genuine mistake brought on by too much involvement in experiments and a lack of time telling tools within the lab, so while it was frustrating it was also his own fault.

Even so, with only a few conversations he could see that Mikasa was getting much better, eating more and training hard in team drills with the other cadets, which he did somewhat miss, but seeing as how even Mikasa struggled with most drills and passed out directly after dinner he decided that he didn't miss them _that _much.

He was really starting to see why he'd been put on Hanji's squad rather than Captain Levi's though, even though he had originally assumed that's where he'd be placed, as while he for sure would have struggled with the training, for him it would certainly be doable.

After all rather than the individual strength that was focused on during cadet training the Levi squad seemed to focus almost exclusively on team strategies and formations, the only part of 3DMG training Armin had excelled in.

Although not what he would have originally assumed when first looking at the squad, in hindsight it made sense.

Unless you were Captain Levi himself (or maybe Mikasa) your chance of being able to take out a titan on your own was fairly low, and considering that most of the time titans don't line up to be attacked individually it made far more sense to use team maneuvers to not only keep the titans distracted but also increase the chance of a lucky hit or to keep everyone from being taken out individually.

It kind of reminded him of a strategy of fish he'd read about before within one of his books, a creation of something called a bait ball. It was a survival strategy used on predations much larger than them, with each fish banking on whatever was eating them getting full or distracted with the others before getting to them.

He'd thought it stupid at the time, after all it was just creating a feast for whatever was chasing them but now he realized that the strategy the fish used wasn't stupid at all.

It was simply incomplete.

The Survey Corps created what was basically a human bait ball but with one big difference. They could fight back.

And like a group of bees swarming a person, the more that there were the better chance that more would get out alive, as long as the group was adept at communication.

Which led to the extreme focus on teamwork as without it the Scouts wouldn't be any better than the fish strategy they seeked to improve upon.

But a big caveat was also that each individual did have to have strength on their own, even if it was nowhere near as much as in a group, and as much as Armin hated to admit it he probably wouldn't have jived well with the team.

He could figure out what maneuvers and how the team should be split far before anyone else could, however that was just about useless if he couldn't actually complete those maneuvers correctly.

Besides, he was proving to be a much better fit on Hanji's team than he ever could have hoped for.

Despite his original misgivings he found that the research was actually quite interesting, and dare he say, captivating. Despite the limited funding they had been able to either build or obtain basically any material that they needed to perform their experiments, and although Armin questioned the necessity of some, many of them gave him solid knowledge of what makes titans tick.

Using nothing but a couple of tents and a rudimentary stopwatch Hanji's squad had been able to create what was basically a sleeping chart for titans, organized by size and typing, which allowed for them to move more efficiently during the early hours of the day and to help them know when to set up camp.

And while the general topic of study and materials were basic, Armin couldn't help but marvel at not only the accuracy of the chart but at the standard it was held, as he'd caught Moblit reworking it multiple times after a titan woke up a few minutes earlier or later than planned.

He'd asked about it a couple times, feeling that while such accuracy was nice the chart really only had to be relatively accurate to allow for safe expedition planning, but when he brought it up Moblit had only shaken his head.

"Sometimes we don't have the luxury of sleeping in safe areas." He'd explained, an inkwell pen between his teeth as he opened a well worn bottle of ink. "In those cases if we're off by even a minute there could be heavy casualties." He dipped the pen into the ink, allowing it to get a good fill. "Think of it this way, for every minute that we are off the number of casualties doubles. It's why we always keep one or more backup watches on us."

Armin was left with both a great sense of respect for the Survey Corps as well as a great deal of fear, as while he'd previously known that most expeditions were around a week or so that information had never really sunk in.

The reality that these people had traveled outside the walls, trapping themselves in lost territory infested with titans just to make a bit of a difference in their numbers was as awe inspiring as it was insane.

But recently they'd been focused on something different, something that was going to be far more important for their upcoming mission. Figuring out the possible sleeping times for Rogue titan.

There were multiple factors at play that were making the whole experience difficult, including but not limited to the fact that this was a brand spanking new titan that had never been seen or tested on before, but they had been able to make quite a few generalizations.

Or rather, they had to as otherwise they wouldn't have been able to proceed with any of the information they had.

It was really making Armin start to feel bad for not holding any information that was truly useful, as while he'd really said all he could, he couldn't help but remember Hanji's disappointed face once they realized that no, he really didn't have any extra special titan info despite what the courts said.

"I know that you kept your mouth shut during the trial, probably out of necessity, but you know you can tell us everything now right?" Hanji had asked him out the blue one day, cornering him along with a couple titan flesh samples that had just been taken.

"I-what?"

"I mean, I really don't blame you for not saying anything then as it kind of was your freedom on the line," They drawled, producing a notebook and pencil out of seemingly nowhere, "but we're not going to judge you here! Whatever you say will only be used to further the mission. Nothing else, I promise."

Armin glanced back at the titan samples, which were quickly evaporating. "I-I don't really…."

He looked back up at their face but Hanji showed no signs of letting up.

"Oh come on, I could tell that you hadn't said everything at the trial!"

Yes, that may have been true but he really didn't know what to tell them. Pretty much everything he had lied about he had only done for the sake of making it look like he hadn't spent as much time around the titan as he actually had.

He wasn't really keeping any big bits of information to himself.

But Hanji simply continued to stare him down, teasing him with a, "C'mon, I promise I won't tell anyone else! Not even Erwin!"

"Ah, but I don't-"

"Cross my heart and hope to die!"

He placed his hands in front of him in a placating gesture. "I really do understand and don't think you will but um, I really don't know any more than I've already told you."

Hanji hummed at that, leaning in a bit closer and staring into his eyes before abruptly backing off.

"So you really weren't keeping anything from us, huh." They sighed as they placed their newly acquired notebook onto the table adjacent to them.

Armin squirmed in place. Ah, he really didn't want to disappoint them.

"I'm sorry, I just...any of the lying I did during the trial was just to make sure it couldn't get used against me later."

"LIke what?"

"Well I um, had actually heard about the Rogue titan far earlier than I said I did but I thought it was just a rumor at the time so I didn't bring it up."

Hanji huffed. "So it looks like Erwin was right then."

He gave them a questioning look, but Hanji simply waved their hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Even before the trial Erwin had said that most of the information you had was probably circumstantial at best and that despite what people said you likely had zero connection to Rogue."

Even before the...so the Commander would have known that there was no reason in fighting over him during the trial. Armin could see why he would have still wanted to win, as losing the Rogue titan would have been a major loss but why not scrub him from the trial at the start?

If Commander Erwin had known that he likely held no information why not simply drop him at the start of the trial? After all fighting for only the right to capture the Rogue titan would have made everything far more certain and less difficult.

He watched as Hanji rubbed the back of their neck in frustration and suddenly felt guilty.

"Sorry if I made it into your squad on false premises…" He apologized, clasping his hands together in a bowing gesture. "I'll do my best to make up for it."

Hanji simply laughed at him, pulling him upwards by the collar of his jacket. "False premises? Kid, I asked for you to be on my squad because according to everyone who knows you you're a certified genius. A real madman in the making."

They smiled at him, pointing over to his own discarded notebook which had previously been placed on the table. "And so far all you've done is prove those people right. Even without some crazy titan knowledge you've been a real help in all of our other experiments, so thanks for that."

Thanks…?

Armin felt himself flush as everything that Hanji had said sunk in. Certified genius? Walls, who the hell did they ask?

"No problem...I guess." he said but he honestly didn't know how to respond.

He really hadn't even done that much over the past few days either.

"Ahhhh, but I was really hoping that you did have some sort of secret titan controlling or communicating power y'know." Hanji complained, throwing their hands up into a wild gesture to let Armin know that they were joking. "It would've been kinda cool if you actually had commanded Rogue to lift that boulder."

"I mean, I guess." Armin chuckled, but that brought back a bit of a memory.

He actually had kind of tried to get it to do that, didn't he?

Although he was sure that he had been too far up for the titan to hear it was still something that had been bugging him for a while.

After all, it really was quite a coincidence that right after he proposed the plan the Rogue titan decided to get up to do so.

"I guess it wasn't meant to be though, huh." Hanji said to no one in particular, likely still mourning the concept of someone who could control titans.

"Hey...I realized that earlier I may not have been fully honest with you when I said I knew nothing."

"Huh?" Hanji had truly been caught off guard. Still chewing on a pen cap they asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well I, uh-" Fuck, Armin didn't know how to say it. After all he still wasn't even sure that any of this was his doing, "I was above the titan before it got up and made its move toward the boulder."

"Hm, yeah, you were still with that tall kid right?"

"Yes, Bertholdt."

"So what, you saw something strange happen? Ooooo did this Bertholdt kid control the titan?"

Armin cringed. "Well, no, I don't really think anyone controlled the titan? I just…"

"You what? Saw it do something odd?"

He took a deep breath. "I thought I was too far away for it to hear, no I'm almost certain it was, but I decided to propose attempting to get it to carry the boulder since it had shown that it wanted to help us earlier to Bertholdt but I knew it was a stupid plan and probably wouldn't work and it was just because I was desprate-"

"Woah, slow down." Hanji warned him, letting Armin realize that he had been holding his breath. "How far away were you when you said this?"

"Um, maybe about fifteen meters above the titan? Maybe fourty or so away?"

"And I'm assuming that the conversation you had with Bertholdt was fairly loud, right?"

Armin thought back to the chaos of Trost. Although he hadn't thought himself too loud at the time, he had basically been shouting hadn't he? "I think so."

"And just to be clear, the reports of the Rogue titan having those long pointed ears are correct, right?"

"Ah, yes." It had been one of the few things about the artist depictions that had been correct since the beginning.

"There's a good chance he could have heard you then."

What? Wait, no, there was no way.

"Larger and pointed ears tend to be seen on animals which rely on their sense of hearing. The shape allows for noise to be easily funneled to the eardrum, which allows them to hear from much farther away." Hanji explained, now very engrossed in the conversation. "It's likely that Rogue has them in order to be able to hunt down titans at a distance, however I really don't think it would be too much of a stretch to say it could have heard you at that distance."

"So you're saying that I may have actually ended up telling it what to do? That it could...understand me?"

Hanji shook their head, "Not necessarily. Of course this could all be a coincidence or Rogue could have simply picked up on your intent through your voice and gestures but-"

They whipped around, sifting through old documents and metal parts until they found what they were looking for. "It also means that we can't rule out the possibility of him understanding human speech."

They handed him the paper, surprisingly undamaged for all of the things that were on top of it and allowed him to get a good look, and now a whole lot of the comments Hanji had made previously were making sense.

When he'd first arrived back to the Survey Corps base he'd been ruthlessly quizzed on the titan's behavior, on everything he'd seen, directly heard about, or simply had the faintest rumor of, and while Armin had thought it a bit unnecessary at the time, he could now see exactly what that information had been going towards.

They had been building a case file of the titan's intelligence, documenting each and every possible intelligent behavior and grouping them into categories such as low, medium, and high intelligence.

In the low category rested actions that Armin could see an everyday dog knowing how to do, such as being able to find prey and distinguish a weak point on a target, and although basic, they were certainly not things a normal titan would be able to do.

Medium held far more actions, but also far more actions scratched out or with question marks next to it, such as tool use. Armin actually recognized some of the questioned actions as they had been rumors he'd heard while holed up within the Supply depot, but many were unfamiliar to him.

Then, in the high intelligence category sat a lone statement with a question next to it, stating 'Understands human speech'.

"But-how did you find out about what I said?" Armin asked. The only thing he could think of was that Bertholdt had told them first, but there was no way he would have, would he? "I didn't, I didn't tell anyone."

"Oh, I didn't know about your circumstances up until today." Hanji replied, "But you weren't the only one to say something to the Rogue titan and have it react oddly. According to some of the soldiers who were protecting him while he carried the boulder any time your name was mentioned its eyes would flit over to them."

"Then there's also the fact that it reacted negatively to you being threatened. I'm not sure if you saw, but when you were told that you'd be fired upon if you didn't move the Rogue titan apparently made a pretty nasty expression."

Armin...actually hadn't heard anything about that, although thinking back on it those small actions lent a lot more credence to the idea of him previously having had contact with the titan. That was probably why Commander Nile had been so focused on him possibly having any previous contact with titans in general.

"So, what? Do you think the Rogue titan truly can understand human speech?" He asked, racking his mind for any other clues towards the answer.

Hanji simply sighed, "I'm still not sure. In your scenario the idea of him being able to understand us is far more likely than the other two, however it still doesn't rule out the possibility of him simply being able to understand tone and general gestures."

"After all, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and a titan that can understand human speech is nothing short of that." Their shoulder slumped as they snatched the document from out of his hands and placed it back on the table, probably to be buried again. "And to be honest, him being able to understand speech opens up more questions than it answers, making this whole situation more complicated."

Ah, Armin actually hadn't thought about the implications of that, as a titan being able to understand them implied that it had learned that from somewhere, which was a terrifying thought.

It also begged the question of who had taught him. Who had enough knowledge of both human language and that titan to even attempt to teach him? Were there more like him, maybe along with humans outside the walls?

He could almost feel the steam coming out of his ears as he went through all the possibilities, but there were really far too many with each thought being more absurd than the last. Yet up until two or so weeks ago he'd thought that a titan which attacks other titans was absurd.

That there could be nothing that so easily preys upon the beasts that terrorize their society.

"-but at this point there's really no use in speculating as we'll hopefully know after this expedition." Came Hanji's voice snapping him out of his thoughts, and Armin supposed that was true.

But it also led to far more questions about how the expedition itself would go. If the Rogue titan could understand human speech would he come with them willingly, or would he resist on principle.

Or would they simply be attempting to capture a wild animal, attempting to communicate to no avail.

So many questions with absolutely no answers.

Hanji must have noticed him continuing to think though as they simply slapped him on the back and asked, "What did I just say?"

Armin really didn't have an answer to that. "Um, well I just thought-"

"Stop worrying about it, it's going to be okay regardless of what we find. Although it may not look like it I'm sure Erwin has already accounted for every situation that's running through that little head of yours."

To be honest, Armin wasn't sure whether he was supposed to be reassured or insulted by the remark, but he supposed there really was no use in worrying about it now.

"For now all we have to do is sit and wait."

It had been eighteen days since the Fall of Trost, if Eren's tree marking system was to be believed, and while he certainly had planned to leave this forest area soon, it was looking more and more like he'd have to be leaving much earlier than he thought.

After the fifteenth day he had seen a grand total of four titans, none of which had come anywhere near his little shelter, and it was honestly starting to become a bit of a problem.

No titans meant he really had nothing to do, and furthermore meant he couldn't be sure that they weren't crowding somewhere else, say around a new breach in the Walls.

(Though he eventually ruled that possibility out as there had been a five year gap in between the first attack and the second, so for another one to happen so soon would have been insane)

So it was truly worrying that he was attracting exactly zero titans, as normal titans should have been flocking to him regardless of the circumstance.

He hadn't heard much from Annie about what an extended stay within his titan form would entail, nor how she'd even been able to get him out in the first place, but both things were starting to worry him.

Because he could only really think of one reason that the titans would begin to ignore him, and that would be if they saw him as another of their kind, just another mindless beast roaming the confines of Wall Maria.

In some ways that would be good, as it would be much simpler to take them out if they weren't attempting to attack back but it would also mean that he was likely on limited time.

If he had already begun to become just another mindless titan in their eyes there was no telling how long it could be before he actually became one of them, body warping until it was nothing but an amalgamation of almost human parts.

Of course, unlike the titans around him, he still had his free will and consciousness the last time he checked, so it certainly wasn't as if that had already happened or would happen instantaneously, but it didn't rule out the possibility either.

He'd never ended up asking Annie where the mindless titans came from, nor where she or he could have possibly obtained their powers now that he thought about it, so the idea that all of these mindless titans, these lumbering beasts, were once shifters like him kept hovering in the back of his mind.

But of course that would really only become an issue if he never was able to make it out of his titan, something he was already planning on solving soon by heading back to the Walls.

Although Annie had already made it clear that she had no plans on joining the Survey Corps, meaning that she would probably never exit the Walls and find him on her own, right now the best he could do would be to basically make a scene at the Walls, let it be known the he was there and was certainly still in titan form.

It was somewhat of a stretch to think that she would risk herself heading over the Walls just to help his dumb ass get out, but it was really the only option he had left.

He'd tried doing what Annie had told him over and over again but the only thing that had resulted in was a few nasty impacts involving the back of his head and a tree.

Which left him stuck.

Eren sighed, releasing steam out of his mouth in a quick jet as he jumped down from his spot in the tree. Normally he would have been a bit more careful about it, but even if he had gotten injured it would have healed up within a few minutes or so, and it wasn't like there were even any titans around, so why bother.

He still paused for a moment to listen though, feeling his ears flick back and forth as he focused on the sounds around him, searching for the telltale thudding of a titan wandering nearby.

Despite his efforts he heard nothing but the scuttling of rodents below him and the high pitched calls of birds above him, both pleasant sounds in their own right, but now was not the time to be enjoying them.

Right now the coast was clear and he certainly planned to make the best of it.

Eren hadn't been running for too long now, maybe forty minutes if he was judging his time correctly, but he was already starting to realize that staying in that forest had hurt him almost as much as it had helped.

For one, almost the second he left the cover of trees it felt as if someone had cleared a thick layer of fog from his head. He no longer felt any of the exhaustion that he had been feeling previously, and fuck did that feel good.

He'd known that his movements had started becoming sluggish for a while now but had simply paid it no mind, assuming that it was a result of staying within his titan form for so long.

Now he was really starting to rethink everything he had done up until now because as the wind whipped past his face and his feet sunk into the earth he felt _fantastic._

It was probably mostly the adrenaline that was making him feel this way but Eren really didn't care, didn't care about where he was going or the possible consequences of going there. Didn't care about the stray titans that came to attack him as he ran.

To be honest, those were just a bonus, as the feeling of his teeth tearing through flesh was honestly quite a bit more pleasurable than it should have been, but revenge was sweet and Eren wasn't about to stop.

Even so, he hadn't been going out of his way to attack any of them, simply efficiently taking down the ones in his path before continuing to run forward, but he'd also noticed something fairly relieving.

While nowhere near as fast as him, there were plenty of titans who seemed to be drawn to him and gave chase for a small bit of time although none of them ever got close. Each fell further and further into the background until they totally disappeared altogether.

Running like this also allowed him to clear his head, as it was something he regularly decided to do when he was particularly frustrated with a training drill or exercise back at camp-and even though Jean had regularly made fun of him for it, Eren still found running to be the best way to get things off of his mind-and has was starting to realize that deciding to run to the Walls at this time was maybe not the best decision.

For one, when he had left the sun had already been setting but now it was starting to dip dangerously close to the horizon as its last lights shone out a warning call.

Although none of the titans around his size seemed to be affected by the lack of light yet he'd seen the smaller ones become slower and slower over time and at this point they weren't even attempting to attack him anymore, simply stumbling around blindly until they collapsed.

Which begged the question of exactly how much time he had before he was going to collapse as well, smack dab in the middle of titan territory without any shelter.

At this point, going back to the forest wasn't really an option as well, as there was a good chance that he'd be forced to sleep before he got back and to be honest the idea of losing this much progress was just really unappealing to him.

His mother may have raised a fool but she sure as hell didn't raise a quitter and there was no way he was going to give up now that he had set his mind to it.

Still, the idea of being alone in titan territory without any shelter was a bit frightening to be honest but Eren pushed that aside, convincing himself that if he really_ was _in danger while he slept he'd wake up from the pain anyway.

Or at least that's what he hoped.

But as the run continued he became less and less sure of his goal, or rather if he'd even make it. The sun was continuing to lower and while he didn't feel the telltale tiredness that let him know he was running on fumes yet, he knew it was only a matter of time.

And although leaving during sunset may have not been the best idea energywise, the more he thought about it the more he realized that it would be better for when he actually made it to the Wall itself.

Due to the lack of titan activity during the night the Garrison often took apart many of the titan cannons for cleaning leaving only one or two up just in case of an emergency. Even so, he'd still likely be catching many of them off guard, meaning that not only would it be far less likely that he would be fired upon but it would be more likely that the story would spread, as a titan randomly showing up around this time was almost unheard of.

He was still cutting it close though, which was why he could have cried once he began to hear a faint hum of noise, human voices that he couldn't make out along with the sound of shifting metal as their heavy weaponry was adjusted.

While not in sight yet, that meant he was close, maybe a kilometer or so away at the maximum which was good as the sun had almost completely disappeared beneath the horizon.

He just hoped that this would be enough to get the word of his situation across.

The looming stone of Wall Rose was the first thing to come into view, it's height appearing far smaller than Eren remembered but he supposed that wasn't the Wall's fault. After all he didn't really know anyone else except maybe Annie who could undergo a fifteen meter growth spurt.

And although he couldn't see them yet he knew that the Garrison was still atop the Wall and not exactly expecting him, if their surprised shouts were anything to go by which was...good, it was good that he was a surprise.

What was not good was the immediate order to load the cannons, as while he still couldn't quite make out any of the weapons or soldiers manning them lining the Walls they could sure as hell see him.

His eyesight really was fucking awful in this form.

He still continued to run though, closing the distance between him and the Wall as fast as he dared so that he could at least see the cannons and know which ones they'd be firing from.

It seems that his timing had been a bit off or the Garrison had changed procedure though as rather than the two or three he expected to hear swiveling toward him he heard at least fifteen individual cannons be locked into position.

Ah, this had been a kind of bad idea, hadn't it?

He began to slow down, moving from a breakneck sprint into a light canter before stopping altogether, eyes not leaving the cannons in front of him. He still couldn't see the people or which ones were being lit, but by now he was close enough to vaguely make out orders and hear the popping of the fuses as they were lit.

In some ways it was helpful, as if he knew what cannons in which position were being lit he could avoid them much more easily, as he'd know before they were even being fired, but unfortunately Cannon position was _not_ something he'd really ever paid attention to in class.

Armin and Mikasa always chided him on it, telling him that one day that information could be really important and that even if he didn't plan on joining the Garrison he should still learn it.

To which he always replied, "I mean, it's not like the Survey Corps ever uses those commands so what's the point of leaning them?"

It looks like this was the point.

Regardless, he could still somewhat hear which were beginning to be lit and loaded, and while it was far less of a warning in advance compared to knowing exactly which cannons will be fired and when, but he'd have to make do.

Now he just had to catch their attention.

...which he hadn't thought about how to do either.

Fuck, he really was an idoit wasn't he.

Eren heard a "Fire!" coming from his left, one of the few commands he knew with absolute certainty, and looked just in time in order to avoid a volley of cannon balls aimed directly for his head.

He leaned back on instinct, allowing the material to fly over him before hopping back and taking a look at the damage they had had caused upon landing and hoo boy, he really didn't want to get hit with that if the small craters were anything to judge by.

Another command came from his front this time, but now he was much more prepared.

He moved to his left, knowing that they would have to wait a bit in order to reload and began to jog forward again, just enough to distract them.

As he ran he racked his brain for what he could do to cause an uproar, to catch their attention enough that the news would make its way inside the Walls to the Military Police but he really couldn't think of any.

Eren knew there were hand signals used by the Garrison, as they had had to learn that as well during training, and even though he was sure that doing even one of them was sure to cause some talk, he couldn't for the life of him remember what they were.

There was the obvious one to fire, but to be honest he didn't think that a simple gesture like that would really do anything. He'd have to do something more bold, something that would really get them-

He yelped as a cannon ball made contact with his calf, embedding itself deeply into his muscle before finally stopping within his leg, and holy shit did that hurt.

It was also enough to distract him from running enough to the point where he tripped, completely wiping out onto the hard ground in front of him. Steam filled the area around him as his calf desperately attempted to heal the puncture but fuck, the piece of iron was still in there.

Forcing his ears to face forward he focused on any of the sounds that were coming from the Wall, but all he got were orders to reload and the faint sizzle of water upon the bell of the cannon.

Okay, he still had time. He could do this

Although he couldn't see the wound itself due to the steam he could certainly feel it, so using the pointed tips of his nails he delicately sliced through the freshly healed skin trying to keep everything as clean as possible.

He had to wiggle his fingers around a bit before he was able to get the ball in between his claws, a sensation that he really could have lived without having felt, but once he was able to he quickly ripped it out of his leg, throwing it back lightly in the direction of the Wall.

Which also probably hadn't been a great idea now that Eren thought about it since at the end of the day he still wanted these people to know he was on their side, even if it didn't necessarily look like it.

Luckily for him the ball made it nowhere near the Wall itself, only falling flat some meters before it hit.

Just in time too, as he heard the command to fire from all directions and cursed as he began to step back. It looked like they weren't trying to attack him like a normal titan anymore, they were simply trying to drive him away from the Wall.

Fuck, fuck, he still hadn't even done anything really of note except for dance around the cannonfire a bit and basically attack back-even if he didn't intend for it to be that way-and he was getting driven back.

He could also feel the effects that the lack of sunlight was having on his body now, as while it was nowhere near as intense as it had been within that forest, he was becoming sluggish. His body began to protest against his movements but he couldn't stop now.

Not yet.

They fired twice more, each time forcing him back a bit more as he couldn't run forward through the smoke and be sure that they didn't have more cannons waiting for him when it hit him.

Walls, it was so simple, something that he'd done almost all of his life. Something that would for sure show that he was on their side.

Listening closely, he waited for the smoke from the cannonfire to clear and looked directly up at the center of the cannon formation where he imagined that that Commander could be and in one smooth movement shoved his feet together, stood up as straight as possible, and threw a fist over his heart.

Eren stood like that for a moment, allowing for the full implications of what he was doing to sink in before pivoting on his foot and making his retreat.

After all, he may be on their side but he had no guarantee that they were on his.

As he began to leave he heard screams of disbelief erupt from the soldiers behind him and while he couldn't exactly make out what each one was saying he knew that his actions there today wouldn't be so quickly swept under the rug.

He just hoped it was enough.


	15. Almost the Expedition

Armin was awoken by a loud banging on the door of his single bed dorm, tumbling off the side of his cot and onto the floor.

Rubbing at his shoulder blades, which had not been very happy to greet the concrete floor, he blindly fumbled for the matches and oil lamp he knew had been set on his bedside, listening as the knocking only seemed to intensify.

After a moment or so he finally made contact with the rectangular package, preparing to light a match and prayed to whatever could hear him that this person had woken him up for a good reason, for their sake.

Once lit, the flame flicked weakly in front of his face, providing just enough light to begin to wake him up, and allowed for him to begin making his way over to the heavy wooden door that normally provided him with an interruption free sleep. It was made of solid oak and not only looked fairly cool, but also provided him with a level of soundproofing he could have only dreamed of within the barracks.

Apparently it had been put into place as his current residence had originally been built as a sort of medical ward for those with head injuries or sound sensitivity, but that had been abandoned as a far more optimal space opened up where a full Survey Corps barrack had once been.

He had been placed there in order to comply with the whole monitoring caveat of the Court order as it was far easier to monitor him (or at least keep up the guise of doing so) if he wasn't placed within the normal barracks, and it certainly got lonely at times.

Not that Armin was complaining though, as while he somewhat missed the banter between his bunkmates and the arguing between Jean and...it was nice to have a quiet area of his own to sleep.

Something that he was currently still being robbed of as he began to hear muffled shouting alongside the banging that was coming from the door. Whoever was calling for him certainly had something to say.

Upon reaching the door he quickly undid the simple key and latch system-which really wouldn't stop anyone in his opinion-and whipped the door open, preparing to either chide or salute whoever had decided that his presence was needed.

Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly as he should have guessed it would have been them, it was Squad Leader Hanji on the other side of the door, continuing to furiously rap against the thick wood even as the door continued to open.

Armin threw up a half hearted salute, doing as well as he could with an oil lamp still in his hand as he opened his mouth to greet them.

"Good morning-"

"Holy shit Armin you're not gonna believe, I mean I really can't but we checked them for-well it'll be a while before the results come back but that many people seeing the same thing is super unlikely, but not impossible-"

His face morphed from mild annoyance into confusion as they continued to rant in front of him, each statement making less sense than the last, however it was obviously something important.

Hanji seemed borderline manic, looking as if they'd awoken not too long ago themselves, as they continued to speak to him, grabbing the sleeve of his pajama shirt as they began to lead him away from the comfort of his dorm.

"Hey, wait, what's going on?" He tried to ask, not putting up much of a fight as they dragged him along the long hallway that led up to the outside entrance of their lab, but Hanji simply continued to mutter, Armin catching the words "Intelligent...Garrison...no possible way…" before he began to tune them out.

Although he'd never been woken up in the middle of the night like this before, he _had_ faced many pre-dawn rants from Hanji as they tirelessly attempted to explain whatever they had found to him so that they could gain a second opinion or a helping hand.

Most of the time none of what they were explaining made sense though, either far too advanced or out of context for him to understand, so he had gotten into a bit of a habit of simply nodding along until Moblit was able to explain the situation to him.

Usually in a far calmer manner and with much fewer words.

However once he was dragged into the lab he noticed that Moblit was also in a tizzy, digging through documents and artist depictions, many of which looked like they had been drawn by him, as Armin began to realize that maybe this was far bigger than the normal small discovery.

He stood in the same spot for a minute, Hanji having let go of him once they entered the lab as he simply observed the two orbiting around each other, compiling notes and sharing mutterings as they went, but he soon began to grow impatient.

Why wake him up and drag him here if they were simply going to ignore him and share inside information among themselves? Why not just leave him to sleep if he was not going to be able to add anything to the conversation?

He cleared his throat, hoping to grab their attention for a moment, just to remind them that yes, he was still in fact here and totally out of the loop, but they simply seemed to continue on, tittering between the two main work tables.

Now officially annoyed he cleared his throat once more, far louder this time. He was aware that he was being childish but really. He wasn't about to sit here and be moral support as Hanji and Moblit did all the work on their own.

This time he did seem to catch Hanji's attention as they turned to him, gripping his sleeve once more and asking, "What're you doing just waiting over there? Come help us out."

Armin lurched forward as his sleeve was tugged with more strength than he had been expecting, only catching his footing at the last moment to avoid toppling into a table full of notes.

"Help with what?" He responded, pulling his arm back to his side, but rather than respond Hanji simply clicked their tongue at them, turning back to their papers, and for a minute Armin feared that he'd lost them once more.

"Weren't you paying attention on the way down?" They asked, and while Armin could admit that he probably should have been listening in his defense he was tired and they hadn't made much sense in the first place. "We need to sort through-no, totally revamp-but I'm not sure if that would mess with some of our already confirmed data..."

Ah. They were rambling again.

Regardless Armin walked over to at the very least make the piles that were currently being formed by the pair neater, as at the present moment they were little more than groups of papers haphazardly stacked and seemed to be at good risk of pile cross contamination.

Something which would end up making all of this sorting much more difficult in the future if not taken care of now.

So he began to separate the papers, pulling them together and clipping them into groups until he started to notice a pattern.

Although only vaguely related each pile could be linked back to providing information for their upcoming expedition, one stack noting the possible paths that would optimize titan encounters based on the weather, another listing both approved weaponry, and a third listing titan types.

Glancing over at the other piles Hanji was frantically adding to he noticed that they were all related to the expedition as well, however those stacks seemed to be far more focused on the end goal, capturing the Rogue titan.

"Has something happened with the expedition?" He asked, still trying to figure out exactly why he'd been pulled in here to help and what the hell could be so important that he was being forced to miss precious sleep. "Did it get pushed forward? Are there some new orders as for how we are to deal with the Rogue titan?"

Hanji didn't respond, simply grabbing one of the piles they had made and transferring them over to their desk, where they frantically searched for and ink and quill. It looks like he certainly wouldn't be getting any answers from them anytime soon.

He turned back to look at Moblit, and while the man still looked relatively shaken up he was no longer manically going through his desk and rather simply looking between a few documents and making notes in the margins.

Armin grabbed one of the clipped stacks he had made and tapped it onto in front of Moblit to get his attention, as hopefully he would be a bit more willing to explain what was going on.

The man looked back at him, exclaiming "Armin! When did you get here?"

"I've been here for quite some time." Armin sighed, "Although I don't exactly know what I'm supposed to be doing."

"Hm, I mean you are technically our resident expert on this topic so I'd assume the Squad Leader brought you here in order to either get your opinion or bounce ideas off of."

Huh?

Last time he checked, Armin wasn't the resident expert on anything, much less anything that had to do with the upcoming expedition.

"I don't follow." He responded, rubbing at his face. Honestly, this was turning out to be a much more frustrating experience than he had first assumed it to be.

"You don't…" Moblit paused for a moment before understanding dawned upon his face. "Did...did Squad Leader not tell you anything?"

Ah, well, there was part of the issue, and while he was sure that Hanji had probably told him something in that gibberish a little white lie wouldn't hurt anyone. "No, I'm totally in the dark here."

Moblit gave him a small smile, and all that Armin could think was that this better be worth it. That this really better have been worth all of the time and effort that he had just put into trying to get a simple answer.

"The Rogue titan came back, and it has certainly made a name for itself among the Garrison."

Ah.

That was certainly worth his time.

Armin's head was running a mile a minute and he swore that if someone put a mirror in front of him at the moment he would be able to see the smoke coming out of his ears.

"He-he saluted!?" Armin asked incredulously because no, there was no fucking way that a titan, no matter how smart, would do something like that.

Even a titan as human as the Rogue shouldn't, no, couldn't know the intent behind an action like that, and the intent was the least confusing part.

Why did he come back? What was the end goal?

According to the Garrison it made almost no attempt to get closer than fifty meters away from the Wall, actually stopping around that point even when it could have moved forward, so it was unlikely that he was attempting to launch an attack or trying to harm any of the soldiers present, making its reasoning for coming back all that more mysterious.

It had obviously known that the cannons were dangerous too, as Moblit had explained how the Garrison noted his cautious stance and movements when attempting to approach the cannons which was odd as well.

Since nobody had seen this titan up until Trost it was unlikely that it had been observing their weaponry beforehand and now that Armin thought about it the Rogue titan had already been wary of the cannons back then.

Meaning that this certainly wasn't anything new.

He snapped out of his thoughts as Moblit wove a hand in front of his face, exclaiming, "Do you see what I mean? There's a reason why Squad Leader is so frantic right now."

Oh yeah, Armin totally understood.

"I understand why, however I still don't get why I was called to get up." He explained, shoving all of the theories brewing to the back of his mind for now. "Forgive me, but at this point I really don't think I qualify as the Rogue titan expert at this point."

"You say that, yet you are the only one who has actually come into contact with said titan. If you'd prefer you could think of yourself as our primary source on the titular Rogue titan." Moblit told him, beginning to shove some of the papers he had clipped together himself into Armin's arms.

He accepted them absentmindedly, mulling a bit over what Moblit had said because, if he was being honest with himself, it was true.

He'd never really thought of it that way before but he was in a sort of unique position when it came to information about the Rogue titan as while he certainly hadn't been the only person to see it, he had been the one who spent the most time observing it.

It didn't automatically mean he had the answers to every action of the titan, but he had a bit of a leg up in deciphering them.

"Anyway, I assume that Squad Leader invited you out here to either confirm their own theories or gain some context as to what it may be doing." Moblit stated as he finished passing the stack on to Armin, who was now realizing that his arms were beginning to ache with the strain of the weight.

He ran his hand along a high shelf, grabbing a fresh spiral notebook, an inkwell, and a few small fountain pens. "As for me, I currently have a wonderful array of people who are more than willing to describe the Rogue titan to me in fresh detail."

Ah, that was right. As the Survey Corps scientific artist this was probably one of the best chances he was going to get to sketch the titan aside from seeing it himself.

Armin watched as Moblit got up and left, presumably to go talk with whatever Garrison members had delivered the information to the Survey Corps in the first place as he was left standing alone with a stack of papers still in his arms.

He glanced back over to Hanji, who still seemed to still be absorbed in whatever work they were currently doing, and began to walk over to them, papers jostling in the process.

No sooner had he set them down a reasonable distance from their tornado of work had they whipped around and asked, "You saluted during your speech to the Second Elite Squad, correct?"

"I um-" was that the name of the cannons squad? "-when I explained why the Garrison shouldn't shoot I did."

"So it's possible that he observed you doing the salute then? It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume that he saw your actions and how the surrounding squad reacted and assumed it was a sort of friendly gesture. After all, we've already established that he at the very least should be able to discern tone so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to-"

Armin let them ramble on, thinking more and more about the first part of that statement trying to thank back to any other time he had seen people saluting at Trost, yet the more he thought the more he realized that nobody else had.

Trost had been chaos, people scrambling to follow barely thought out orders as respect took a backseat to survival. People hadn't been saluting, they'd simply been listening to anyone who seemed like they may have even a shred of authority.

So his salute should have been basically the only one the Rogue titan had seen expect…

Except the titan had already been behind him at that point, hadn't he?

He'd had his back to Rogue at that point but with how close he'd been to the titan it would've had to almost totally flip around in order to see him, which _had _happened, but only after he'd dropped the salute.

While the Rogue titan may have been able to still hear him, there was no way that he could have seen him at that point.

"-which would make sense, considering that he's shown no urge to hurt humans and may actually think of us as-"

"Hanji, there's no way the Rogue titan could have seen me." Armin stated, cutting them off.

They stared at him in bewilderment, either not expecting what he said or not expecting to be cut off in the first place, and it honestly made Armin a little uncomfortable until their face dropped and their shoulders slumped.

"I figured that would be the case." They sighed, shoving aside a chunk of papers. "It would be too easy if that was what it was."

...now Armin felt bad.

"Ah, I'm sure that there's some other explanation for it though!" He quickly interjected. "We're still not entirely sure when he entered during Trost, or for how long he existed beforehand so it's entirely possible that he learned it from some other place or encounter."

"That's the problem though, isn't it? If Rogue learned it from somewhere or somebody else it means that we have unaccounted for interactions with humans, which means that we have no way of knowing how long it had been going on for."

Fuck, that was one of the possibilites that Armin was scared of, but was also becoming mroe and more likely with every interaction the Rogue titan had with humans.

Which only left two options for how and when those interactions had occurred. Either the Rogue titan had somehow been able to communicate with people inside of the Wall and keep it a secret for Walls knows how long, or he had gotten it from some people _outside _the Wall, an equally terrifying thought with equally terrifying consequences.

"Although that's not the only thing you are worried about, is it?" Armin asked, noting how Hanji had begun to chew on the skin of their thumb, a gesture he had only seen a few times from them but knew that it meant they had something on their mind.

They sighed, pulling their hand away from their face and admitting, "No, it's not."

"The issue is that we have no evidence of anybody interacting with Rogue outside of Trost." They tapped their fingers across their notes, smudging a small bit of ink that wasn't quite dry yet. "Meaning that we have to assume that he learned everything he knew about humans within that short span of time."

"But that would be almost impossible at this point, wouldn't it? According to Moblit it looked like the titan even knew the odd basic command such as 'set' or 'fire' so it might have been lurking around the Walls for an indefinite amount of time before Trost." Armin reasoned, still trying to piece everything together.

Hanji hummed before asking, "If somebody yelled something like 'Off' before a bunch of flares went off what would you assume the command to fire the flares was?"

"It'd be 'Off' right?"

"Well, it'd certainly be safe to assume so."

Armin tilted his head, not getting where they were going with this. Sure he could assume that from one action but it wasn't like he had any guarantee that that was the correct command.

Besides, hadn't they already decided that the Rogue titan's intelligence was similar to a dogs? For it to assume after only hearing the command once it would have to have human-

"Oh." Armin said aloud, glancing back down to the notes Hanji was taking. "You can't possibly think…"

"It's the most likely possibility in this scenario though, isn't it?"

Well, yes, but there was also just no way.

A titan with dog-like intelligence was improbable, but they had the evidence to prove so, but anything more was only impossible but also highly dangerous.

If what Hanji was thinking even had a possibility of being true they'd have to rework their whole capture strategy-no the whole mission itself to avoid what could be a catastrophic failure.

"What are we going to do about it then?" Armin asked. "If what you're saying is true the whole mission could be at risk."

"I know." Hanji sighed, moving their inkwell out of the way as they picked up a group of papers. "Come with me."

Armin was a bit bewildered by their sudden shift but began to follow them out of the tent, leaving the large stacks of papers behind.

"Where are we going?" He asked them as they began to make their way back into the Survey Corps headquarters, navigating the halls with an expertise that they could have only gained through years of traversing them.

"To tell Erwin that we need to revamp the mission." They responded, allowing for silence to hang in the air for a second before following that up with a much softer, "and to tell him that he was right. We need to prepare for a titan with what may as well be human intelligence."

Annie was the first of the three to hear about the whole situation, it being nothing more but newbie chatter at this point, and almost immediately wanted to slam her head into the nearest wall.

Or table.

Or really any hard surface at this point.

While some of the details seemed to be muddled or fabricated due to most of what she heard being spread through rumors but there were enough consistent points to get the general gist of the situation.

The situation being that Eren had decided to run up to the wall for god knows what reason, salute, and then run off back to wherever the fuck he had been previously, in the process allowing some very unfornature information to slip about how intelligent his titan truly was.

Which was a pain in the ass for multiple reasons, the least of which being that the more the Survey Corps knew about Eren the more likely they were to capture him on their first try, and personally Annie would prefer to not think they only had one shot at this again.

The Survey Corps being aware of intelligent titans was an issue in general though, as even though Annie had only been here for about three weeks and she was already starting to realize that the assumption the Survey Corps research division was incompetent was not only wrong, but dangerous.

Because of this assumption she'd gone out with Bertholdt to scope out the lab for the possibility of taking out the titans there-even if they _had_ been incompetent it was still better to try and keep as much information as possible out of their hands-and had very quickly realized that it was not a place they wanted to be.

Mostly because they did _not _need to be dealing with the Armin-Squad Leader Hanji combo at any time but most specifically right now as they were working overtime to try and figure out what the deal was with Eren, aka the Rogue titan.

After all, while Annie may have exaggerated to Eren a bit back when she told him that if he shared a bit of his powers Armin was likely to figure him out, she hadn't said it simply to isolate him.

She'd said it because even as a 14 year old trainee whose only contact with titans was the very brief time in Shiganshina, the boy's intellect was frightening. She'd seen it both in class and during practical exercises, how he could take the smallest bits of information and just extrapolate upon them until he'd discovered what he wanted.

Frankly, it scared her, and she would really prefer to keep up this charade of them being upon the same side, but if it had just been him Annie wouldn't have had a problem sneaking in and offing the titans without a trace.

The issue was the Squad Leader, Hanji Zoe.

They were a vicious variable that neither Annie, Bertholdt, nor Reiner had been able to account for so far, mostly because they knew little to nothing about them and it looked as if all the information they did have was severely underestimating their abilities.

Or at least that was if Armin was to be believed.

He had only attended a few lunches, looking dead tired, but the shit that he had told them was almost unbelievable.

Somehow they had figured out shit about the titans that not even they knew about, such as their sleeping patterns and composition of their skin, and Annie had no clue how they had done it.

Which was a problem, as personally she was interested in keeping her identity as secret and mysterious as possible until she was off this godforsaken island and back in her hometown where nothing could hurt her.

(although that wasn't quite true either was it? She wouldn't be welcomed back with open arms and kind faces even though they said she would but they lied they always did-)

So she, along with Bertholdt decided to make the wise decision of staying the fuck away from that lab and everybody that had anything to do with it, a plan that would have worked fantastically if Eren hadn't decided to be his usual self and fuck everything up.

Although they probably should have expected something like that by now, given his less than stellar track record.

Regardless, as a new soldier they hadn't been given much information about the new mission aside from the basics, which included formation and end goal, but they had been able to get a small bit of information from the veteran members of the Levi squad, a group that had apparently been chosen specifically for this mission due to their skills and coordination.

Although they certainly didn't look like too much of a threat from what she'd seen.

Looks could be deceiving though, as while they hadn't shown off any truly outrageous maneuvers or exercises, the ease with which they completed the current given exercises made it obvious that this was nowhere near the extent of their skill.

And considering that even Mikasa and Jean who had both been considering prodigies on the 3DMG were struggling, this squad was not a group you wanted to be on the opposing end of.

Being on the same end was quite pleasant though, as despite her original warriness around the group she found herself warming up pretty quickly.

Deciding that, all things considered, Annie was both the most likely to keep their mouth shut and looked the least threatening out of the trio, Reiner and Bertholdt had fobbed the responsibility of information gathering onto her, which really only involved sitting with the veterans and listening to them talk.

Or, at least that had been the plan at first and would have worked perfectly if they hadn't been so hell-bent on getting her to talk along with them.

At first it was just stupid small talk, 'how's the weather outside', 'did you enjoy the new training excercise?', 'what was your favorite part about today's meal?',and because she wanted information she humored them far more than she normally ever would have.

She learned that their names were Petra, Gunter, Oluo, and Eld. That they were each only a few years older than her but had been on many expeditions beforehand. That they had almost a blind faith in Commander Erwin, as he had never led them wrong.

That none of them had had family in Trost or Shiganshina.

It came to the point where she actually caught herself looking forward to the lunch and dinner breaks as she knew that it would be another chance to talk with the group, to get to see what kind of lives they've led up until this point and to hear small anecdotes and stories that amused her far more than she would ever admit.

The information gathering almost became secondary to her own interests the more time she spent with the squad, to the point where it actually looked as if it was becoming dangerous.

Bertholdt was the one to call her out on it first, noticing her beginning to relay far more than mission information back to them, and suggested that she stop as she had already gained more information than they would have without talking and there was no reason to risk a slip of tongue.

So Annie let go, going back to sitting in Bertholdt and Reiner's vague direction and continuing to listen to whatever odd rumors popped up and decide whether they deserved her attention.

It was far lonelier than her previous seating, but Bertholdt had been right. There was no reason for her to continue to stay there and if she was being honest with herself she was getting attached to those people at a frightening speed.

And with the expedition coming up in about a week, that was a very scary thought.

Regardless of her previous experiences though with all of the rumors flying around and with the current uncertainty she really needed to get something concrete.

So back to the veterans table it was.

Petra was the first one to notice her slowly slinking over to the table, giving a soft smile and beckoning her closer, which alerted the rest of the table who turned to stare at her.

It made her a bit uncomfortable, but now was not the time to be turning back.

Oluo was the first to say something about it, haughtily stating, "So I see you've come crawling back." A comment which earned him a fairly hard smack courtesy of Petra.

"Ignore him." Petra told her as she scooted over to make room for Annie at the table. "He's just miffed that you'd prefer to sit with your friends than listen to his absurd stories."

Oluo squaked in indignation but didn't say anything else on the matter, leaving Annie to simply stare with indifference.

"What brings you back over here anyway?" Eld asked, Gunter quickly following him up with, "Not that we mind or anything, we just thought you preferred to sit with your friends."

Annie shrugged, attempting to come off as neutral as possible. "Not much, I just decided it may be an interesting change of pace."

"You say that, yet I assume that is not the whole truth, is it?" Petra asked, pushing her tray aside and resting her elbows on the table.

It looked like Annie had been found out far sooner than she had expected.

"Well, you are somewhat correct in that statement." Annie relented, beginning to eat. "I legitimately do enjoy hearing your experiences and learning what I may be in for once we go on expedition."

Oluo interrupted her with an undignified shout of "See! I was right!" but was ignored by both her and the rest of the people at the table.

"However I admit that I didn't head over here to simply hear some recounted experiences again."

Petra hummed, twirling a spoon in her hands while the rest of the table looked at her with a blank expression.

Ah, it looked like she was going to have to spell it out for them.

"The upcoming expedition." Annie stated with a sigh. "I've heard some pretty nasty rumors about something happening yesterday but still don't know if any of it is true and I'm getting a bit concerned."

"Oh, the thing with the Rogue titan right?" Eld asked and she nodded. His casual tone of voice caught Annie off guard a bit, as she'd thought that a big event like this would have been a large cause of stress for this Squad.

After all, they were the ones who would be directly attempting to capture Eren so knowing that their target had far more intelligence than previously thought should have at least been shocking to them.

But now that she looked at them, none of them seemed to be even the slightest bit stressed. In fact they actually looked kind of...relieved.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much." Eld told her with a wave of the hand. "Formation and basic procedures aren't going to change so you needn't worry about any new information being thrown at you the day of the expedition."

…

What?

Nothing was going to change?

That didn't make any sense, something like the intelligence level of the target being much higher than previously thought should have taken their original plans and basically ripped it to shreds.

Hell, if she had been the one planning the expeditions it would have ripped everything she knew to shreds.

Commander Erwin had already stated in court that he believed the Rogue titan at maximum had that intelligence of a dog so all of his plans should be centered around that, right?

So what did Eld mean, 'Formation and basic procedures aren't going to change'? Was Commander Erwin sending them out on what basically equated to a suicide mission?

She must have let her confusion slip through to her face because Petra began to smile at her, explaining, "I know it may seem a bit odd but apparently the Commander had some kind of hunch that a situation like this may arise, so the plan he created accounted for the titan possibly having a far higher intelligence than we had previously assumed."

"Better to be safe than sorry." Gunther shrugged. "Especially with something as big as this."

Annie stared with wide eyes. What the hell?

The Commander had been willing to form their positions, no the entire fucking expidition around what was essentially a _wild guess?_

What if he'd been wrong? What if he'd sent his entire military faction out into the field expecting to come across a genuinely intelligent titan and was met with nothing but a wild beast? What would they have been able to do then?

It simply didn't make sense, and it was extremely concerning to Annie for multiple reasons.

One being that Eren's little stunt didn't matter, they most likely would have captured him on either their first or second try regardless, meaning that she, Bertholdt, and Reiner had far fewer chances than they had originally thought.

And the other being that they apparently had a plan in place that they were relatively confident would be able to capture an intelligent titan, meaning that if she ended up shifting she would have to be far more careful than she had ever been.

Of course she had far more training and a much better grasp of her abilities than Eren did, so it is far more likely that she would be able to escape if captured but part of the problem was simply with the amount that she didn't know.

She still hadn't been informed of how they were meant to capture Eren, as every time she attempted to ask someone who may have known they either claimed that they didn't know or responded with a vague non-answer, so it was entirely possible that whatever the Survey Corps had come up with to capture Eren would be effective on her as well.

Fuck, _fuck,_ this was just far too much. Every time she thought she was one step ahead something would come up from behind and blindside her forcing her to rethink every little bit of her plan before spitting it back in her face again, and she was starting to get a bit sick of it.

(although she supposed she couldn't complain. Lack of information and planning had been the main reason for their failure at Trost, which she was not willing to repeat)

But she could still work with this. She'd have to talk it over with Bertholdt once more but a lack of change in the Survey Corps plans also meant a lack of major changes within theirs.

She would just have to be extra careful.

"It certainly takes a bit of getting used to, but I promise Commander Erwin knows what he's doing." Petra smiled at her. "I mean, if he didn't there's a good chance that none of us would even be here."

She was going to make this mission succeed at whatever cost necessary.

"Yeah." Annie said softly. "I think I get it."

She wasn't going to fail again.

The table went back to chatting amicably, recounting experiences that they had had with some of Erwin's more far fetched plans and how they had panned out but Annie continued to sit and think.

She looked up at their smiling faces, a jovial attitude spreading as they continued to joke and poke fun with one another.

At whatever cost necessary.

Eren didn't make it back to the forest before dark.

He had known from the moment that he had begun running back from the Wall that he was unlikely to even get to the point where the forest was within view, but hey, a guy can hope.

Besides, he'd assumed that he may have been at least able to push through the grogginess and continue on his merry way, as every other time that he had passed out within this form he had been lying still, but unfortunately his assumption had been proven wrong.

He woke up with his face in the dirt and a small titan digging into his leg, an overall unpleasant feeling, and while he normally would have ripped it apart on principle if he was being honest this thing looked pathetic.

Barely bigger than a human itself the titan struggled to even break through his flesh and get a bit to eat. Actually Eren was pretty sure that he was healing faster than this thing could damage him.

So he watched it for a few minutes waiting to see if it would realize that it's prey of choice was not only far more powerful than it but also awake and watching, but after a few minutes of this terrible display it still hadn't noticed so he assumed it never would.

He ripped the titan off of his leg, crushing its upper half in his hand before letting the rest drop to the ground, already turning to ash and began to think.

At his best estimate he was about fifty kilometers away from the forest he'd been calling home and probably wouldn't have many issues with heading back considering the fact that it was likely still cleared of titans but for some reason he didn't feel satisfied with this solution.

For some reason it almost felt like the easy way out, to simply head back and wait for Annie to rescue him somehow while he sat on his lazy ass like a damsel in distress.

And while he was fully aware of the inherent dangers of being stuck in a titan horde-that time in the forest would probably never leave him-if he was being honest he didn't think that that was a possibility at the moment.

He'd taken out far too many titans around the forest area for them to truly horde up without him noticing and even then he had an endless amount of area to run and was far faster than all of the titans around him.

So it wouldn't hurt to stick around, right?

Just to take out a few more titans and make Annie's job easier, not because he knew that the moment he went back to the trees he would be bored out of his mind or anything.

'Yeah, it'd be fine' Eren thought as he began to get up, now noticing the few sleeping titans around him.

Most were fairly far away from him at this point however the fact that they were still sleeping puzzled him. That smaller titan had certainly been awake, and so was he for some reason.

Er, well, he knew the reason was that the sun was beginning to rise, golden rays peeking over the horizon and bathing everything in a sheet of light, but while he could understand the smaller titan being awake he didn't really understand why he was.

One of the few things he'd paid extra careful attention in class during training was titan behaviors and they had made a pretty big deal about how titan sizing affected their awareness and sleeping times as that would be really important once he was in the Survey Corps.

(It was also because even with all of their mysteries titans made for more sense than physics but that's besides the point)

So considering that he was on the larger side for titans he'd assumed that without shelter he'd either be one of the last types of titans to wake up or he'd wake up once he was put in sufficient enough pain/danger.

But he hadn't awoken from that. The titan digging into his leg was annoying, sure, but he hadn't even noticed it until he'd gotten over his initial grogginess, and even then the pain had barely registered.

Besides, he knew what waking up from pain felt like, and it was nothing like the gentle rousing he had just experienced.

He supposed it didn't really matter in the end though, as it was likely something to have to do with the fact that he was a shifter and didn't exactly follow the normal titan rules, and if it wasn't he didn't really have any way to know until Annie showed up.

Plus it provided an easy way to deal with the possible hoarding problem by getting rid of the ability to group before they could even think about getting to him.

And so Eren amused himself by jogging lightly back in the direction from which he'd came, a small trail of larger titans quickly greeting him. They had likely been trying to follow him back from the Wall before succumbing to the lack of sun like him.

Unfortunately for them this also made it far easier for him to find them and take them out, simply crushing their napes underfoot before moving onto the next.

He continued to follow the trail until just the tip of Wall Rose was in view, knowing that at this time of morning while most titans weren't awake the Soldiers atop the Wall certainly would be, and with his presence yesterday they were likely far more on edge than before.

Yesterday he'd had the element of surprise on them which was one of the only reasons that he'd been able to escape relatively unscathed but if he were to head back today he certainly wouldn't get that luxury, so he simply hovered around that area, destroying any sleeping titans he could find along with a few small ones that were currently awake.

Once he was satisfied with his work and could see that medium sized once were now rousing he decided that he should probably head back to his normal territory, or at the very least the area where he was less likely to be swarmed.

He glanced back at the Wall one more time for no real reason but this time something was different. The cannons were still indistinguishable to him from this distance but the long streak of purple heading up into the sky certainly wasn't.

Eren couldn't tell whether it had come from outside of the Wall or on top of but someone had fired a flare, probably to communicate with another stationary guard somewhere on the Wall.

But for some reason he couldn't remember ever going over the flares that the Garrison used to communicate and the color bugged him. What was purple again? Wasn't it supposed to be a…

Eren's eyes widened. Purple was the emergency flare, the call for everyone around to know that there was a serious situation.

But why would they fire it from atop of or in front of the Wall? The cannons shouldn't have had any issues with taking out hordes of titans that close and most of the more difficult ones to deal with should still be asleep.

Plus the Wall itself was almost a perfect protection from titans on the ground so there wouldn't be a reason to fire from the top of the Wall unless-

Oh fuck, _oh fuck!_

In seconds Eren was sprinting towards the Wall, legs pumping as fast as they would go as he did his best to get there as fast as possible.

The only reason someone would have for firing a purple flare atop the Wall would be if it was in danger. If the Armored or Colossal had reappeared and were now attempting to take out another portion.

But fuck, why now?

Were they attempting to make another hole in the Wall like at Trost? Were they upset that Eren had foiled their plans and were simply trying to make the best of a failure once more?

In the end it didn't matter but it didn't stop the thoughts from invading his mind as he continued to approach the Wall.

Which was also when he realized that he certainly couldn't see the Colossal titan and the Armored must have been very well hidden if it was still here.

There wasn't a gaping hole in the Wall yet either meaning that that wasn't the issue yet.

Eren's sprint faltered as he continued to review the area. None of the cannons that had come into view were in position, each facing away from him even though he knew they had no reason to be.

There were also far more personnel atop the Wall than there had been yesterday for some reason although he still couldn't make out any of their features and rather than scrambling and shouting orders they were simply staring at him.

He slowed down into a jog and then stopped, continuing to keep his eyes on the soldiers in case there was an emergency he just wasn't aware of yet but none of them seemed to move, not even to reach for the blades he knew were stocked within the holders upon their 3DM gear.

So why was the flare fired? Had some new recruit just messed up orders and accidentally shot it off?

Well no, that couldn't have been the case. If so there probably would have been a lot more panicking and bar that, the sound of some poor soul getting their ass chewed for messing around with flares, but there was just silence and the soldiers staring at him.

Almost as if they had been expecting him.

And then it hit him, they probably _had_ been expecting him.

Although from where he had been he could only see the tip of Wall Rose because of their increased height they had likely been able to see him from about a mile back.

They _knew_ he was here and had used this opportunity to get him to unwittingly give them more information about himself, more specifically that he knew what the flares meant.

They had tricked him and he had played right into their fucking hands.

Eren released a sharp cloud of steam out of his mouth, pivoting on his foot and sprinting back towards the forest. He knew that he should have just gone back, he never should have set foot anywhere near the Wall.

He had made his point yesterday and should have just waited until Annie had gotten a chance to come help him out, however long that would've taken, but now he'd fucked it all up.

When it came to the salute he did yesterday while it was outside of titan behavior it wouldn't be too hard for most people to chalk it up to mimicking, something that anything with the barest bit of intelligence and arms could do.

It certainly shocked them and would continue to be talked about for a while, however it wasn't impossible for a titan who had already known how to carry a boulder and seal a gate to have enough intelligence to mimic.

But the flares? That was something else and he knew that they would hone in on that.

Flares hadn't been used during Trost so if they were to assume that he had learned of them some other way they would have to assume that he had been following the Survey Corps around outside the Walls for a while, and he knew that nobody would be satisfied with that answer.

His actions here would only lead them one step closer to the truth, that he wasn't actually a titan but rather a human in a titan's body, if they hadn't figured it out already.

Eren didn't want to think that was the case but they had known, _they had known he would respond to the emergency flare._

They had known and risked titans piling up against the Wall just so that they could provide proof of their hypothesis, certain that it wouldn't fail.

They knew that he somehow had insight into how the military operated and from there it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say they he, or at the very least someone else, had invaded and gotten the information necessary for him to know such things.

Regardless of whether they thought it was him or someone else the outcome would be the same. Tighter regulations and more testing, both things that neither he nor Annie could afford given their situation.

Fuck.

_Fuck._

He'd really messed it up hadn't he?

'I'm so sorry Annie.' was the only though running through his head as he made his way back to the forest.

Atop the Wall with a still smoldering flare gun Hanji smiled.

"Ah, this really has become interesting, hasn't it?"


	16. Eren's Action are Finally Noticable!

Surprisingly, Armin had gotten a good night of sleep for once. Despite the countless nights of fretting and researching that had robbed him of rest for the past month or so, and despite his worry for the expedition that was set to take place, today he'd slept just fine.

It was more than a bit odd to him, all things considered, but there was a strange sense of calm that had washed over him.

Hanji had told him that it was fine, that it was normal and some people were just like that, but he still couldn't help but continue to feel odd about it. After all today was the day that they were heading back outside the Walls. The day where he'd have to face those beasts that had taken nearly everything away from him twice once more and pray that this was not the third time.

Today was the day that they'd possibly be bringing one of them home.

Yet even as he untacked his horse and led it over to the rest of Hanji's squad for transport he didn't still didn't fear the same spike of fear he had felt when he was first told of the expedition.

He was...well, for a lack of a better word he was excited, almost eager to head outside the Walls and face the titan that he had been practically obsessing over during the past month, and while he kept reminding himself that every expedition carried unknown factors and was far from easy he couldn't help but feel somewhat safe.

Every member heading out on this expedition was highly skilled and had been trained for this type of thing and including Trost everyone had at the very least _seen_ a titan before, meaning that it was far less likely for anyone to freeze on sight, an unfortunately common occurrence outside the Walls.

Besides, with the way the formation was set up it was highly unlikely that the less skilled members would ever even get to participate in combat.

They were using a circular formation with Captain Levi's squad leading the formation with Squad Leader Hanji and Mike's squads flanking them from both sides with multiple separate elite squads in the back, each squad having one or more rookies.

Two supply carts were set in the center-although what their purpose wasn't quite clear to Armin yet as Hanji had already assured him that the expedition was unlikely to be longer than three days-and about three kilometers out on each side were the spotter teams, tasked with scoping out the area and any possible titans.

It was a setup that had apparently drastically lowered casualties in the past and if Armin was being honest it was a fairly solid plan, even accounting for the inexperience of the rookies with fighting titans as each of them had been set up as the flare holders, tasked with holding communication with the other squads while they were at that great distance.

Unsurprisingly it was also the job he had been given, Armin remembered as he patted his side bag which contained all of his color rounds, each packed together tightly in order to minimize the space they took up.

From his brief meeting with the rest of the 104th at the last dinner he'd attended Armin had found out that Jean, Connie, Annie, Reiner, and Sasha all having been stuck with the job while Bertholdt escaped due to the fact that he was stationed in the same squad as Reiner.

Which left Mikasa as the outlier, as per usual, as she was stationed in Captain Levi's squad due to her situation as an apparent prodigy as well as her actions in Trost, and if Armin was being honest that was what worried him most about this entire mission.

Though the Captain's squad was somewhat protected by necessity they would still be at the very forefront of the field and would most likely be the first ones to engage in combat with the Rogue titan if necessary.

But it was going to be fine. He knew better than anyone that Mikasa was fully deserving of her seat within the squad and was more than strong enough to hold her own even without a highly talented squad backing her up.

Commander Erwin wouldn't have placed her there unless he truly thought she had the needed skills and he was almost certain that Captain Levi wouldn't have accepted her as a part of his squad unless he agreed, so there was no need to worry.

Besides, he wouldn't even be that far from her or away from her for too long, as his squad's path was set to interfere with her's once they reached the forest of giant trees. He was supposed to meet up with her then.

('Just like how Eren was _supposed_ to live through Trost.' A small voice in the back of his mind whispered. 'Just like he was _supposed_ to join the Survey Corps, _supposed _to have been heading beyond the Walls on this expedition rather than rotting in a mass grave full of-')

Speaking of, the fact that they were even heading towards the forest of giant trees was news to Armin as he had originally been told by Hanji that they were planning to head straight out from the front of Trost's gates utilizing the horse pulleys but apparently some recent events had changed their whole course.

Due to a lack of data their original course plan had been to simply head out straight from the front of Trost until Wall Maria was visible and then spotting along that area as they ran north until they were directly out front of the Karanese district and then heading back through that gate, assuming that they Rogue titan was not spotted.

It would had been a gamble and relied entirely on the hope that the Rogue titan had run left and not past the gates of the previously named district, however it was their best bet at the time.

Yet with the titan's most recent appearance Vice Squad Leader Moblit and Hanji had been able to all but exactly pinpoint where the titan could possibly be, as the fact that it had been able to run up to the Walls twice in under a day and had ran in the same direction both times was fairly telling.

Based on the direction on which he had run they had theorized that the titan was likely taking refuge within the vast expanse of trees, which also may have been the reason why it had not been spotted within the past five years. (Although why not before then was still a mystery)

Regardless, it was still a far better option than simply picking a direction and choosing so Armin was appreciative of the change, though he wasn't exactly able to share this sentiment.

After the public announcement of the planned expedition route he'd been left to fend for himself on the veterans side, being watched by Captain Levi for once as Hanji had been forced to attend some sort of legal briefing-and although they had tried to convince him that it had nothing to do with him or the Rogue titan Armin knew that it most certainly was-so he was mostly stuck hovering around the older man with no idea of how or if he should start a conversation.

And so rather than chatting amicably like he had planned, Armin was forced to simply stare straight ahead as Commander Erwin gave out positions and duties that he had already heard, pointedly avoiding eye contact.

Although logically he knew that the meeting was only around half an hour long, by the time Commander Erwin began to read off his closing statements it felt as if he had been standing there for far longer, his feet already beginning to ache from being in the same spot for far too long.

Still, he watched and waited as the people began to file out of the clearing, barely sparing him a glance as he stood and waited for Captain Levi to make the first let him know that it was fine to leave now.

Yet as the crowd thinned out it became apparent that Levi had no intention on leaving, simply staring forward at the podium on the small stage, brows furrowed and arms crossed. So once the crowd became little more than small friends groups conversing Armin began to sweat.

Was this a test? Did the Captain want him to do something? Because if so, sweet Sina he had no idea what it could be.

And so he waited, locking his eyes on the podium as well and stealing glances every so often just to see if the other man had begun to move.

After what felt like an extraordinarily long time he decided that fine, at this point he should just bite the bullet and ask why the hell they were just standing here even though the speech was so clearly over and so he turned his head, coming face to face with-

"Kid, why the hell are you still here?"

Armin snapped his jaw shut, his question catching in the back of his throat as his Captain stared him down, clearly expecting an answer that Armin wasn't prepared to give.

"Ah-well, I was just...I thought that since you're um…" he spat out, struggling with words for a moment before taking a deep breath to regain his bearings. "Since you have taken over my observation today due to Section Leader Hanji being absent I believed that I would not be able to leave until you left or gave the order, sir."

He waited with bated breath as Captain Levi simply blinked back at him before averting his eyes with a quizzical, "Is that so?" Almost sounding as if he'd-no, there was no way that he'd forgotten that he was supposed to be on observation duty.

"Well I can't exactly supervise you if I'm walking away, now can I?"

"Ah, I guess so." Armin mumbled, beginning to walk out of the clearing. He really didn't know how to respond to Captain Levi, and the man himself wasn't making figuring that out any easier, so Armin simply stuck to responding for now.

This still didn't seem to be the greatest course of action though, as after a minute or two of walking in silence he could see that the man was becoming visibly agitated. So he decided to take a risk, breaking the silence.

"So I, um, saw that Mikasa is on your squad."

"Ackerman?"

"Yes, she's-well, I've known her for a long time, sir."

Levi sped up a bit, overtaking Armin as headquarters came into view, briefly pausing to take a look at his face.

"You worried?"

Armin gave a small smile. "A bit sir, if I'm to be honest."

"I understand." Levi nodded, turning back to face what was ahead of him. "But you know she wouldn't be there if we had any doubts about her abilities."

"I know, I know, it's just…unexpected." Armin reasoned, finally beginning to relax a bit. "I'm still kind of in shock over how much of a change the expedition went under in the past week, but that has really been my only hang up so far."

Levi froze, and Armin had barely been able to react quickly enough to avoid crashing into the smaller man's back. Shit had he done something wrong?

"I mean, I'm certainly happy that we have a more clear route now as to be honest I didn't particularly like the chances we were taking before-"

Captain Levi whipped around to face him, a glare fixed on his face. "What did you just say."

"I um-I mean no disrespect really!" Armin backpedaled. Walls, what had he said wrong? "It's just that with the original plan it was kind of-"

"The fuck do you mean original plan? Who the fuck told you about that?"

Armin just blinked at him for a moment. Did...did Captain Levi not know?

No, that was impossible. He was Commander Erwin's second in command, his most trusted soldier aside from Hanji, so there was no way that he hadn't been given the original orders.

So then why…?

"Um...well Squad leader Hanji told me a few weeks ago, back before the Wall incident-"

Armin was cut off once more as Levi let out a loud sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose and running his fingers along his eye sockets.

"Of course it was shitty glasses who told you, why do I even fucking bother." He mumbled, and Armin got the impression that it was more to himself than anything. "Listen-kid-you weren't supposed to know about that."

"Huh?"

"Erwin's expedition paths, well, really any part of Erwin's plans to change faster than a cadet who's late to roll call, which is mostly good. Out in the field you've gotta be flexible. You work with the shit you're given and build off from there, understand?"

They sat in silence for a moment before Armin realized 'oh he expects an answer!' and nodded his head.

"When you're out there-" Levi made a vague hand gesture behind him "-knowing that plans can change at any time is good, and so is knowing that they don't always change due to some serious shit happening, but the problem is that you newbies don't know that."

"You little shits assume that every time Erwin decides to move even an inch to the left it's because the mission has become a complete failure and you're all about to die, and don't even try to tell me you got that kind of experience in Trost because you know damn well that this is different."

Armin hadn't been planning on saying anything but he still raised his eyebrows at the statement.

"So what do you think would have happened if Erwin had given out the previous plan and all of it's dirty details way back when it was still in progress? What do you think it would have caused?"

"Distrust?"

Although the glare on his face didn't fully lift, Armin caught the corners of his mouth relaxing, so he took that as a win.

"Close, but no dice." Levi told him, ushering Armin to slide out of the way as people began to enter the brick hallway. "Panic. It would cause most of you guys to panic and believe that Erwin may not have all the details down, causing more of you idiots to break formation and fuck things up even more and then we'd have a real problem on our hands."

Ah, Armin was starting to get it now.

He thought back to Trost, having watched squad after squad desert as more information came in. Listening to the chaos as nobody could decide which orders to follow as they seemed to change every few minutes.

And while he was very much aware that the two situations were different, this being a planned event with people who were used to this type of thing, it would still have to account for the same struggles.

"So don't worry about that shit. We run on trust here, so don't ever forget that."

Maybe Captain Levi was actually a bit kinder than he came off as.

"Yes sir!"

Despite the nervous energy that had spread throughout the squad the moment the Karanese district gate had gone out of sight, from what Armin could tell the mission was going well.

Exceptionally well.

They'd been riding for around an hour and a half, if his judgment was correct, and while he had been told not to expect much action due to this position the sheer lack of anything was starting to become concerning.

So far the spotter teams had shot nothing but green flares, each round leaving faint streaks through the air behind them as the formation continued to move forward at a breakneck pace, and while Armin was more than aware that green meant everything was good he couldn't help the nervous pit that continued to grow in his stomach every time another was fired.

He responded in kind every time, letting the other squads know that things were fine on their end as well before turning his focus back to Hanji and the situation at hand.

Something was off.

Armin couldn't quite put his finger on it, but from what he could tell this many green flares at this point in the expedition wasn't normal given the fact that his stash had already been heavily depleted and the uneasiness of the squad surrounding him.

He watched as they twitched with every new flare, hands inching back towards their blades or simply being placed on the heavy metal of their maneuver gear, reminding themselves it was there.

His tongue felt heavy as the unasked question of, "Is something wrong?" burned upon it, but he couldn't bring himself to ask. Knowing that if he did Hanji would likely just smile back at him and ask why he thought that.

Yet with every new burst of green the tensions of the group seemed to rise, motions becoming just a bit more urgent. The casual scanning of the area becoming just a bit more frantic.

And so he swallowed down his fear, knowing that ultimately he couldn't do much at this point but trust that the Commander had thought of this being a possibility, or even planned for it, and continued to ride.

Still, the absolute lack of any titans continued to plague his thoughts. The sheer oddness of the situation refusing to let him forget about it.

After all, he'd never heard of any sort of expedition where the Survey Corps just hadn't encountered any titans. Ones where there were very few and in between, sure, but even then by this point in the expedition they were sure to have seen at least a few.

Which meant that there was something different about this expedition, a new factor that made this one so different, and it wasn't hard to think of what that could be. Yet to assume that left far more questions than it answered.

Just as it had been for the past month, the Rogue titan made such a convenient and simple solution and yet applying that solution opened up so many new worlds of questions, each with far more difficult answers.

The main one right now being if the Rogue titan was what was currently causing the lack of titans, why hadn't this occurred earlier?

Assuming that it was the Rogue titan and nothing else that meant that theoretically a timeframe for when the Rogue titan had appeared could easily be made by recognizing when the last normal expedition was and comparing that to when it had first been spotted.

A process that sounded so easy in theory, but ran into one major bump in practice.

The last major expedition had taken place leading up to and _during _Trost, meaning by that logic the Rogue titan would have had to have appeared during that time period, and even then that didn't make much sense, although Armin supposed that they still really didn't know how titans were created, so it could have been entirely plausible.

Still, he found it hard to believe that a whole new titan, especially one as different looking as the Rogue could be created in a fairly heavily populated area and nobody had noticed, but that was the least problematic part of that theory.

If it had been created during Trost, how did it know what the purple flare had meant, or really the fact that the flare had meant anything in general.

There were just far too many questions that gained less and less answers the more that he thought about them, which is why when the first red flare was spotted he could have almost cried with relief.

Which in hindsight was sort of terrible, but Armin couldn't have cared less in the moment, and it looked as if the rest of his squad was having similar feelings as the oppressive atmosphere around them lifted.

The flare had come from one of the back right elite squads, not quite the furthest back but very close meaning that it had likely moved closed in from the right, far back enough for the spotting squad to miss it but up enough that it simply hadn't spotted the furthest squad.

"Armin, flare." A voice to his right reminded him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

He fumbled for a moment, letting out an, "Ah, yes," as he reached back into his bag to retrieve another green flare, barely getting his fingers around it before he saw a plume of black smoke rise from the same location.

'Another titan?' He wondered as he shot off the green flare, watching as the surrounding squads responded in kind, counting three...five...eight...nine total plumes of smoke.

His eyes immediately locked onto the area where one remaining flare should have been, the furthest back right, the squad that he had assumed the titans had skipped over. He gave them a moment, knowing that occasionally flares could be misplaced or take a minute to fire off, but after the sky continued to remain blank he began to curse.

"Elite Squad Five is not responding!" He shouted to Hanji who looked back at him for a second before pulling their right hand off of their reins and raising it in the air. An order to get ready.

"Any other titan flares?" They asked as they began to ready themselves, lightly tapping the gas canisters at their sides.

"No sir!"

"Good. Keep me updated and stand by."

"Yes sir!" Shouted the squad, each awaiting for their next orders nervously. Although Armin didn't doubt the fighting prowess of the Fourth Elite Squad, the ones who had currently spotted the titan or titans, there was something wrong about the situation.

Why hadn't the Fifth Squad responded, and if they had truly been wiped out why hadn't they fired any flares when they had first spotted the titans? From what he knew Annie should have been in charge of the flares on that squad and she was easily one of the most competent out of all the rookies.

So what had happened for such a catastrophic failure like that to happen?

Armin pushed the thoughts out of his mind, hoisting the side back up onto his lap for quicker access as he continued to scan the area for any other titans, a new plume of black catching his attention.

The Seventh Squad, one of the two middle squads had fired off their flare and Armin was quick to respond, shouting, "Seventh Squad spotted an Abnormal." as he loaded the color canister and shot it into the sky.

Two abnormals in less than five minutes? While certainly not impossible, seeing two back to back was odd, especially considering the low overall turnout of titans over the course of the expedition.

He watched the green responses shoot into the sky, the time courning to eight and not even having to pause to look for which one was missing.

"Fourth Squad is not responding!" he shouted back to Hanji who audibly cursed before pulling back on their reins.

"Veer left!" They shouted as they began to steer their horse inwards, towards the middle of the formation, the rest of the squad being quick to respond as Armin grit his teeth.

So they were thinking the same thing that he was, that there was no fucking way two sperate abnormals had come out of absoluetly nowhere an decimated two extremely skilled squads.

That whatever titan was approaching was not only extremely dangerous but approaching far too quickly for comfort.

Hanji began to urge their horse on faster, a silent order to everyone else to follow as the squad began to speed up, a decision Armin questioned until he saw what was directly ahead.

A forest of giant trees looming eerily over them, reminding him of his childhood in which he'd always been warned of entering due to the threat of wolves, but Armin was not a child any longer. They no longer seemed to hold his fear like they used to, but rather held a promise of safety, an escape.

And so he followed the squad into the forest, looking back one last time to watch the squad directly behind him shoot off a final black flare as the other squads continued to fail to respond.

The sudden silence was almost deafening as the background sound of wind and thudding in the distance was swallowed up by the thick canopy, leaving nothing but the quick hoofbeats of horses and the faint clink of metal as the squad continued to move.

They weaved in between the thick trees for a few more minutes until he saw Hanji hold their right arm out once more, this time bending it at the elbow with their palm facing forward. An order to stop.

Armin tugged a bit on his horses reins, slowing down with the squad until they were moving at a relaxed canter, although the mood was anything but. He watched as Hanji stopped and listened, looking behind them for something, although it was impossible to tell whether they were searching for whatever was chasing them or simply another squad.

When nothing but silence responded they nodded towards Moblit before abruptly drawing their sword and jamming it into the nearest tree at eye level-a display that Armin had to admit he flinched a bit at-before withdrawing a bright red strip of fabric.

"Find a branch and tie up your horses for now." They ordered, releasing the blade from their handle and threading the fabric through the small hole on the end. "Everyone has at least one acoustic round, correct?"

Armin nodded, running his thumb over the slightly smaller cartridge within his side pack. Acoustic rounds were rarely used simply because the color flares were generally more effective but in the case those flares were almost useless.

Once the rest of the group had confirmed Hanji sighed. "Good. Although there seems to be an unknown threat behind us our overall mission hasn't changed, our aim is still to locate and capture the Rogue titan.

They fiddled with the switches on their gear for a moment, checking their clicks before continuing with, "Our goal right now is to cover as much ground as possible so we are going to be splitting up." as Armin let out a shudder.

Splitting up was, well, easily one of the most dangerous things they could be doing in this situation but he had to agree that it was the most efficient way to go. While the Rogue titan would have been easy to spot in open plains due to its size, this forest was both thick and massive. If they continued to travel in a group they had almost no chance of encountering the titan before the day was up, and with a new threat trailing them there was no telling how much time they truly had left.

But Hanji seemed unfazed by the fear the swept among the squad as they continued to explain the plan. "Armin be staying here, staying in the trees and surveying the area in case Rogue happens to pass through here, but the rest of us will be heading off into different directions until we reach the forest edge before heading back. If you see him, fire your round."

They pointed towards the blade in the tree, the red fabric standing out starkly against the natural green of the forest. "This is our meeting point. If you hear the acoustic round you are to head back here to convene, alright?"

Armin nodded, glancing around at the nervous faces surrounding him. At this point it was clear that Hanji would not be addressing the threat behind them anymore, probably due to a total tack of information.

Although given their current situation it wasn't as if there was much they could do regardless. If the reason for the squads behind them to stop responding was truly the same there was no way any of them could individually take it on, meaning that it wasn't even worth worrying about.

That at this point all of their energy should be put into attempting to complete the mission, not thinking about factors that they ultimately couldn't change.

Or at least that was what Armin told himself as he watched his squad pull themselves off into different directions before he shot his anchors up as high as they would go and flew up into the treetops.

It was peaceful up at the top. Looking down through the thick foliage to spot the red fabric which waved every once in a while, when the slightest of breezes made its way through the trees.

It was peaceful, but also fara more nerve wracking than anything Armin had experienced so far.

Without any of his squad members around he had almost no protection from any stay titans, save for the trees, but even then they'd only be a temporary relief. He knew that he was nowhere near as skilled as any of the veterans and was severely lacking in 3DMG skills even when compared to his fellow graduates, meaning that on his own he may as well be a free meal.

But that really wasn't his main worry.

He'd be able to stay out of sight and high up enough that any titans on the ground would either completely avoid him or have an extremely difficult time getting to him, giving him plenty of time to move to a different tree or slightly different area.

After all, there were no shortage of anchors for his gear in this forest, giving him the ability to move at will whereas a titan would have to continually chase him. Regardless of how he looked at it he had the high ground when it came to normal titans, but of course there was still that one unknown factor.

He knew that whatever had taken out the groups behind him had to be a type of titan, or at the very least look exactly like one at a distance, as if it hadn't none of the titan flares would have been fired, the squad would have fired an emergency flare instead.

Meaning that whatever was after them could be another intelligent titan, like the one they were currently hunting, but that was just him grasping at straws at this point.

But it wasn't as if it was impossible. It'd been a possibility that had eluded Hanji and him for a bit, as if the Rogue titan really was a new species of titan it only made sense for there to be more like him. Even if they were much farther out or in whatever hiding place the Rogue had been in earlier it would still be less surprising than if the Rogue was the only one of its species.

Still, the idea of multiple intelligent titans that had somehow escaped both sight and capture for the entire existence of unsettling, especially considering the only other two titans that Hanji had hypothesized as being intelligent were the Armored and the Colossal, both enigmas of their own.

Yet at the end of the day exactly what was going on with any of those titans wasn't his concern, his concern was the faint thudding that was making its way into his ears, a thudding the was far more rhythmic and composed than the hoofbeats he was used to.

The sound was approaching quickly, far quicker than he thought a normal titan would be able to navigate this dense forest, especially considering how many spaces would be outright blocked for something of its size but it was most certainly approaching and approaching fast.

Armin gripped his swords as he slunk back further into the foliage of the trees, clearing out a small area for just his face. If he was lucky it'd be the Rogue titan, having figured out that the scouts were now in its forest and saving them the trouble to finding it themselves, but Armin knew that it almost certainly wasn't.

The sound was coming from a direction which would lead directly out of the forest, meaning that it had likely entered recently, and there was only one thing he could think of which could do that at its current speed.

And so he waited, holding his breath as he listened to the rhythmic thudding, getting closer and closer until-

The titan slowed it's pace, stopping briefly in the small clearing to take a look at the red fabric, giving Armin a second to process its appearance.

It had blonde hair reaching down to just above its shoulders and beginning to cover livid red stripes of muscle that seemed to poke out from beneath its skin. A trait that Armin had never seen nor heard of in a titan.

From where he was sat he couldn't see much of the rest of the titan's body, only able to get a top-down view, but it was enough to realize what it's final striking feature was.

The titan was full proportionate, just like the Rogue titan it looked almost as if someone had simply scaled a human up to size, but this time with far more abnormalities. Whereas the Rouge titan's skin had looked smooth, like a large flat expanse, its looked ridged. Where the Rogue had full coverage it looked as if its skin only covered about half, creating a far more intimidating appearance from afar.

It was somewhat obvious they had to be of the same species, a type of titan built for attacking others with that type of build, but there was something gnawing at Armin, telling him that something was off.

For one, many of the traits Hanji had proposed were used for hunting simply weren't present on this thing, the long tapered ears that were starkly present on the Rogue being nowhere on this titan.

He'd seen its hands briefly as well, all white bone and exposed muscle but no claw tips for gripping and ripping flesh, and even then there was still the problem of just how _different _they looked.

He'd seen animals with large variations between them, birds with all of their different sizes and shapes being a great example, but that was always because they had different purposes.

The small birds with long beaks were different than the parrots he'd seen in markets because of what they ate, how they hunted, and that was a big problem if the difference between these two were for the same reasons.

Because if this titan wasn't built for hunting other ones, what was it built for?

Armin didn't get to continue this train of thought for much longer though, as the titan below him seemed to freeze in place, its subtle movements as it had been observing the fabric stopping as it slowly began to face forward.

Armin drew in a shaky breath. From what he knew, that was the current direction of the supply carts and Levi squad, although he really had no idea. The plan was still the same for his squad but he knew that those were more flexible, more likely to change under pressure.

Still, they couldn't have moved too far off the mark and he had no clue how fast this thing could move, making it a very dangerous possibility. But there was no way that he could fight it.

If he was right this thing had been able to single-handedly take out two elite squads on, making any hope of him even being able to slow it down being near zero, so it was safer to just stay put. To stay out of sight and relay information later.

After all even if he couldn't fight he could at least make the fight easier for everyone else.

Or at least that was what he believed until he watched the titan turn its face upwards, scanning the area where he was.

Armin's breath caught in his throat, the only thought running through his mind being that this titan had the most brilliant blue eyes as they continued to look around, finally locking onto him.

He was dead, oh he was so dead. His hands shook as the titan continued to stare at him as he yelled at himself to move, to just _move!_

He had the advantage here, among the trees, all he had to do was fly away and stay high and it'd never be able to catch him. All he had to do was _move!_

But he couldn't, and he was losing ground with every second he continued to stare into the titan's eyes, becoming nothing more than the brainless titan fodder his training had warned him of becoming.

This titan wasn't brainless though. Not by a long shot.

No normal titan would have been able to take out four elite squads. No normal titan would have stopped to examine the marking point that Hanji had set up.

And no normal titan would have been able to spot him from where he was in the trees, but this one had. So Armin froze. Hoping, praying to whatever could hear him that this titan decided that he wasn't worth the effort because he wasn't sure if he could move if it decided he was.

But it looked as if he was having no such luck today.

When the titan turned its head at first Armin had believed for a moment that it might be moving away but was quickly proven wrong as it jumped up to grab one of the lower hanging thick branches, barely holding on long enough to get its feet on the trunk before launching itself towards the treetops.

Armin let out a choked out scream as it came face to face with him, his arms finally deciding to corporate as he scrambled for his gear and blades, but it was far too late.

The titan had grabbed him and was pulling him down, down out of the treetops and towards the ground, down out of his only safety.

The wind whistled in his ears as he moved, struggling to breathe with the heavy weight of a titan grip on his chest. Even if this titan decided not to eat him at this point all it had to do was drop him and that would be it. There was no way for him to get his anchors into anything substantial at the speed he was moving at, and even if he could it wouldn't save him.

He was moving too fast, too hard and everything was blurring together in a wonderful mosaic of green.

And then it stopped.

His head spun as he tried to regain his balance but he could tell that he had stopped moving, coming to rest directly in front of the titan's face. He blinked a few times to clear his vision, just to confirm that what he was seeing was real, but there was no mistaking it.

Rather than quickly eating him or letting him fall to his death this titan was simply staring at him, eyes darting around his form, and Amrin couldn't do much but stare back.

Then, just for a split second he thought he saw the titan smile and was frozen once more.

His world began to move again, and distantly he recognized that he was getting farther and farther from the titan, almost as if it was holding its arm out, before the tips of his boots touching something solid as the grip around his chest began to loosen.

It was letting him go?

Armin continued to stare forward as the grip got lighter and lighter, until eventually he was roughly set down on one of the lower lying trunks. He wouldn't be safe here for long but the titan hadn't done anything to damage his gear, and at this point it was obvious that if it had wanted to it would have.

If it had wanted him dead it could have just crushed him the second it had its hand around him.

But it hadn't.

It had let him live.

The titan took a few steps back, turning as if it was preparing to leave, at which point Armin realized something he hadn't seen at all before.

On its chest were set two large lumps of flesh, covered in ridged layers of skin and surrounded by muscle but unmistakably in the form of breasts.

'Titans weren't...they'd never shown…' Armin's thoughts continued to spin as he listened to the thudding of the titan leaving the clearing, running towards the middle of the forest.

And they stayed that way until a few minutes later when they were broken by the sharp piercing of an acoustic round.

While he wouldn't admit it to his squad members, personally Levi felt as if this expedition had been going to shit for quite a while now.

The numerous lost squads had been a wake up call but it had really been the lack of any titans that should have queued them into the realization that what they were walking into may as well have had trap written all fucking over it.

Still, he couldn't quite bring himself to be upset over the situation yet, not when they'd effectively caught the biggest source of all their worries up until this point, trapping it-no, _her_, in what was supposed to be their trump card against the Rogue titan. Something to use just in case things had gotten a tad bit messy.

And messy things were indeed as he watched the titan wirthe within the hundreds of sharp wires sinking deeper into its flesh with every movement she made.

Like an insect caught in a web, every time she moved she simply trapped herself more. Her skin rapidly healing and trapping the wires even deeper while she couldn't do much but futility cover her nape.

He let the anchors of his gear shoot into one of the thick trees before pulling himself up, settling down next to Erwin who was watching the situation with an impassive look on his face.

"That does not appear to be the Rogue titan."

Levi snorted. "No shit, but it's a titan that needed to be captured."

He heard Erwin let out a sigh, and although he knew that Erwin wasn't particularly upset with the situation either, that being this far off the plan was far more stressful than what he would prefer to deal with.

"Hanji should have heard the round from where they were." Levi supplied, absentmindedly cleaning off his blades despite not having been used yet. "Should we just take her out or wait for shitty glasses to get here and decide?"

"At the moment I do not see the harm in waiting."

"Hm." So Erwin was worried about exactly what this titan could do, and truth be told Levi was a bit concerned as well.

He'd been in charge of training all of the elite squads that had been taken out at this point, and while none of them were exceptionally strong they should have been more than enough to take out almost any titan thrown their way.

Which meant that this bitch was an exception, though that was obvious visually.

So he continued to watch her for any clues that may let him know how it had managed to take out so many squads so quickly, but the only thing he got was an increasingly panicked look on the titan's face.

Or he would say it looked panicked. For all he knew it could have been gloating about how it was going to eat them all, a sentiment it may have been trying to express as it began to roar.

He covered his ears which were already beginning to ring from such close proximity to the sound as it continued. He had no idea what she was attempting to do, but judging by her struggling it wasn't working.

Yet the roaring still continued as steam began to pour out of the lacerations she made across her body, forming a thick cloud above her as her movement continued.

And then all at once it stopped.

Levi removed his hands from his ears, still unable to hear much at the moment as he peered down into the thick cloud of steam. What had been the point of that display? Had it been calling for help? For mercy?

It didn't matter.

It looked as if no help had come and nobody here was going to offer it any fucking mercy after what it had done, so it looked as if eveything had just been for show.

Or at least that was what Levi thought until the dull roar of titan footsteps made its way to his ears.

The steam was beginning to clear now as well, revealing nothing but slack wire beneath it.

'How the hell had it gotten away?' was Levi's first thought as he shot himself off towards the direction it was running, knowing in the back of his mind that it was headed in the same direction as his squad, purposefully or not.

Regardless, at this point what he had was an unknown threat that had already shown itself to be capable of taking out Survey Corps members heading towards where Erwin had predicted the mission objective would be, meaning that he had to incapacitate her as fast as possible.

The was far easier said than done though as the bitch was fast. He was already using far more gas than he felt comfortable with in order to make sure that she didn't gain too much of a lead on him, but even then that was looking like that might not be enough.

The terrain was to his advantage, however, and so with every dodge and duck she had to take, he inched closer, his hands twitching around his blades in anticipation.

He estimated that he would be on her within a minute or so, quick enough to slash her achilles tendons and stop her in her tracks before being able to slow down and fully evaluate her as a threat.

Or he would have been able to had it not been for a flash of something large and unmistakably _titan _catching his eye as he heard someone shout "Captain!"

He immediately stopped his gas, shooting one of his anchors into the tree next to him to pull him into a resting position as he took a moment to observe the scene.

A quick glance revealed all five of his squad members, well and alive, standing in a ready position on the ground all facing towards-

Ah. Guess he was killing two birds with one stone here.

As he turned his gave to what his squad members were staring at he was met with the face of the Rogue titan, and if he didn't know any better he'd say the titan almost looked bewildered. He didn't get to dwell on it for long though as rather than stopping the titan he'd been chasing simply continued straight on their path, tackling the Rogue to the ground.

"Stand down!" He ordered his squad, watching them flinch back from their ready positions, eyes never leaving the two titans who were now battling, but at this point it almost seemed like a losing battle.

The Rogue had obviously been taken off guard, being almost completely pinned down by one of the other titans arms and unable to do much but scratch and snap at the other titan, injuries which were healing in seconds.

On the other hand the titan he'd been chasing simply reared and arm back and slammed it down into the Rogue's face, the impact rumbling the ground as it crushed clean through the Rogue's jaw.

Levi almost flinched at the display but realized that this was his chance. The new titan had her back to him at this point, almost all focus placed on the Rogue titan and would have little way to be warned of or avoid any of his attacks.

He dropped both of his anchors, redirecting them to a tree just past the titan and quickly pulling himself along the path, letting the force of the motion easily carve a neat line through the top of her left tricep before repeating the motion with the left.

At this she took her attention off of the Rogue, who was slowly regenerating but seemed overall very dazed and turned it towards Levi who continued his attack.

He worked from the top down, slicing through the muscles connected to the back of her shoulders before moving down to the hips, knees, and ankles, taking out as much as he could not necessarily to end her, but rather to hinder her movement.

Although he had no doubts in his ability, something about this titan made him uneasy, like there was something he was still missing, so he avoided the nape for now, focusing on making sure that there was no possibility of error once he went in for the killing blow.

He had forgotten to take one factor into account though. A factor which reminded him of its existence in the form of a narrowly dodged fist that hadn't been aiming for him.

Moving quickly, he shot his anchors back into the tree that he'd previously been in, knowing that attempting to fight while the Rogue titan was defending itself was a stupid idea.

The Rogue quickly pulled itself back on top of the other titan, looking to land a similar punch to the one he'd taken, but rather than connecting it simply hit the ground, creating vibrations that Levi could feel from here he was in the tree.

So it didn't surprise him when the bones in his elbow and arm popped right back through the skin, a macabre show of power that was ultimately useless.

The Rogue titan roared, whether out of pain or frustration Levi couldn't tell but the new titan wasn't about to let this small opportunity go. She ripped herself out out from under him, flipping him over and sinking her jaws into the back of the Rogue titan's nape in one smooth movement.

This threw Levi into motion as he went for a similarly deadly move, trying to get his blades in the back of her nape as fast as possible but as he moved he didn't hear or feel the normal rip of flesh.

Instead he felt his blades break as he abruptly realized why she'd been so confident. He shot his anchors out to anywhere they could catch, needing to leave the area as soon as possible as he looked back on what had happened.

Covering her nape was a sheen of blue crystal, a sheen that he'd seen already on her arms and legs but had attributed to being a trick of the light. But it wasn't. It was protection.

And there was nothing he could do about it at the moment.

He watched helplessly as the titan ripped out the Rouge's nape, taking out a chunk that was far bigger than what was needed to kill before scrambling to her feet and beginning to run.

Fuck. While Levi still didn't understand how the bitch had gotten free, that really didn't matter in the long run at this point. What matters is that she was taken down.

Unlike the Rogue titan she obviously had no intention of helping humanity, her goal seeming to be the opposite in fact, so while Hanji may whine and bitch to him about it later having this titan dead was far more useful than taking it back in for study.

"Petra, Gunter, fall back!" He called out to the two remaining members of his squad still following him. "That's an order!"

"Sir!" He heard Petra shout back to him, obviously not very pleased with this decision but that didn't matter. This titan wasn't normal and he wasn't going to risk any of his team getting hurt. She'd already shown off far more fighting prowess than any other titan, having been able to recognize her opportunity to quickly take the Rogue down, but she wasn't fighting back anymore.

Whether taking out the Rogue had been her goal all along or she was simply scared of them now, Levi wasn't going to pass this opportunity up. She was stuck in a dense forest, a terrain that was nothing but a hindrance for her but a boon for him.

He was able to catch up with ease compared to before, swooping down and slicing through her achilles tendons and sending her crashing to the ground as she futilely put a crystal coating back over her nape.

But Levi wasn't worried about that.

From what he'd seen she could only cover certain parts of her body in that crystal and even then only one part at a time, making the next parts of his job far easier. Once more he sliced through all of the important muscles he could think of, leaving her little time to regenerate before moving onto the next part.

After taking out everything he could he noted with displeasure that the crystal coating was still covering her nape, meaning that she could heal independently of this power. Something he'd suspected but hadn't had proof of until now.

The solution was simple though. If he couldn't attack the titan's nape though the back of her neck he'd simply have to go through the front.

Moving quickly he anchored his wires to the titan's forehead, pulling himself up and forcing his used blades as far into the titan's eyes as he could and ripping them to the side. Once they were stuck he released them, reaching his handles back down to the blade holders on his hips for new ones before releasing one of his anchors.

Using his remaining wire as a pivot point he pushed off the side of the titans cheek before using the momentum he'd gained to circle the titan's face, pushing his new blades through the thick muscles on both sides, before dropping his anchor entirely.

Just in time as well it seems, as while her jaws were now rendered useless Levi watched as they shot closed quickly before falling open. A remnant of a movement she hadn't been able to make fast enough.

Now she was done. Out of options and unable to heal fast enough there was no way left for her to defend herself and he could see that she knew it as well.

She squirmed uselessly, steam beginning to shoot out from the muscles on her triceps as they healed faster but it was already too late. Placing anchors on her cheeks Levi shot up towards her mouth, fully intending to use the slices he'd made to carve through what was left of her nape but he stopped short.

There was a saliva covered mass slipping down her tongue and once Levi looked closer he realized that it was something, no, _someone _who she'd grabbed at some point. That was why she had been running, why she hadn't attempted to bite him as he'd approached.

She'd been attempting to...protect whoever this person was. In her own sick way.

He glanced at the man-no, boy, he'd just uncovered, noting the crushed 3DMG still at his sides and the familiar Training Corps logo on his back before hesitating. Though she hadn't attempted to hurt the boy in any way previously, who was to say that she wouldn't attempt to in her dying throes?

There was something missing here, something that Levi couldn't see and so he made his decision, hefting the kid under one arm as he launched himself back towards the trees. He roughly set the kid down, only making sure that he wouldn't fall to his death before turning back and-

She was gone.

Like before there was a giant cloud of steam in her place and a quick shot from his anchors showed that she wasn't simply hiding, she was gone.

Just like the Armored and Colossal.

He cursed, rubbing his hands along his temples. He should have gone for the final blow. He should have assumed that she'd do the exact same shit she'd done before.

But there wasn't much he could do about it now except for gathering up the limp weight of the kid he'd retrieved.

Unlike the Survey Corps the trainees didn't get different patches depending on their graduation year or expedition meaning that it was impossible at a glance to tell exactly who this kid was, if the jacket and uniform they were wearing was even theirs at all, but he knew that Shadis kept a mental portrait of almost all the cadets he taught so worst comes to worst he'd just have to bring the kid to him.

Still, it was certainly an odd situation to be in, and one he didn't want to be explaining to the rest of his squad at the moment, but as the telltale whirring of wires made its way to his ears he realized he'd have no choice.

"Sir, did you-" Oluo cut himself off as he took note of the cadet at his Captain's feet. "What the hell?"

"'Your guess is as good as mine." Levi explained as the rest of his squad arrived, each staring with mild disgust and curiosity towards the boy at his feet. "He was in the bitch's mouth."

He heard a muffled "What?" from the small crowd that had begun to surround him as the last and newest member of his squad arrived.

"Did you kill her?" He heard Mikasa ask as she made her way to the front of the group, freezing at the sight of the person ahead of her.

"Eren?"


End file.
